A British expat was left feeling decidedly non-cheeky after guards on the Gibraltar–Spanish border confiscated his Nando’s peri-peri sauce below new Brexit guidelines.
Astonished Joseph Lathey was advised he should hand over his bottle of medium-hot condiment as a result of it contained processed greens.
For good measure, the 27-year-old was additionally advised he couldn’t move with the collection of samosas, flatbreads and numerous spices he was carrying from a buying journey to the Rock.
He went again into Gibraltar and offered all of them low cost, he says.
Mr Lathey, who lives simply throughout the border in La Línea de la Concepción, mentioned he confirmed the guard on responsibility the contents of this bag and was shocked at what occurred subsequent.
“Usually they simply take a look and wave you thru,” he advised the Pen Information company. “However this time he casually began going by issues and selecting stuff up. He appeared a bit confused, which I used to be a bit greatly surprised by as a result of that by no means occurs.
“So then he requested me to step apart and he took me over to the fellows who often examine the tobacco and the alcohol.”
A guard rifled by his bag, pulling gadgets out and studying the again of labels.
“He simply began pulling stuff out and mentioned ‘no, no, no, no… however you’ll be able to have these two issues,’ and pulled out two luggage of spice that I had and mentioned ‘that’s the one issues you could maintain’,” Mr Lathey mentioned.
The disgruntled Brit, who had lived in Spain since he was a baby, estimates that he was solely capable of maintain £6 price of his £43 store.
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As a substitute of handing the remainder over, he instantly put advert advert on Fb and offered it for £20.
Mr Lathey mentioned: “The border police needed to take the samosas, as a result of they mentioned it had processed greens in it.
“There was a bag of cloves, chilli powder, some teriyaki rib rub or one thing like that that, and the flatbread.
“The Peri-Peri Nando’s sauce was in there, too. It had onion puree on the substances and that’s one of many issues they mentioned to me: ‘look, it’s obtained processed greens on it, you’ll be able to’t have it’.”
In maybe the cruellest blow, the Brit revealed he has by no means truly tried Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce.
“I used to be actually trying ahead to making an attempt it,” he mentioned.
Mr Lathey, who needed Britain to stay within the European Union, was below the impression that the brand new guidelines solely prohibited meat and dairy.
However, regardless of being satisfied that the border guards had been not sure of the principles themselves, he felt powerless to query their selections when all of the authorized documentation was in Spanish.
“With regards to the border police, you’ll be able to’t actually argue with them,” he mentioned. “In the event that they inform you no, then that’s it, you’re not going to recover from the border with it, except you’ve obtained a lawyer with you – how am I purported to argue my case?
“All of the documentation that they had was in Spanish. I’m pretty fluent in Spanish, I’ve been right here for about 20 years… however I’m not used to studying authorized jargon from a doc written by the Andalusian authorities. It’s very tough for me to learn and perceive at a look.”
Mr Lathey continued: “The customs officer clearly didn’t know any of those legal guidelines off by coronary heart, he was having to reference the papers he had, and he appeared as confused by the authorized jargon as I used to be.”
And if the principles are that strict, Mr Lathey expects it’ll result in a surge in smuggling.
He mentioned: “Clearly, we will purchase all the pieces that we want in Spain, there’s no downside there. The factor is that good issues that we would like – your Cadbury’s chocolate and your digestive biscuits… all that form of stuff – you’ll be able to solely get in Gibraltar.
“What that may imply going ahead: I can assure you that everybody goes to hold on bringing these issues by, they’re simply going to search out imaginative methods of doing it.”
An advisory word from the Gibraltar authorities warns that each one meat and milk shall be unable to enter the EU from the peninsula however makes no point out of processed greens.
The incident comes simply the week after border officers within the Netherlands took ham sandwiches off a lorry driver arriving from the UK. “Welcome to Brexit, Sir,” they advised him.
