Customs Penalties and and Other Scams in Shipping
While major casualties occupy the headlines and are easily remembered, the many ways in which corrupt and larcenous officials make money from shipping companies give rise to significant losses. When I began working in P&I in 1967, it seemed as though you could find a recognisable international standard of maritime law in most of the world's ports, but gradually that certainty became eroded as countries and their customs and maritime authorities sought to manipulate their laws to their financial advantage. I even spoke about this in my retirement speech in Tokyo. The most egregious examples of this practice were in Iraq and Syria where shipowners were held to ransom over spurious and concocted claims. In the 1970s Iraq was importing huge quantities of grain. The practice grew up whereby the port authorities would have an entire shipment declared 'unfit for human consumption'. The technique was that after the hatches were opened, they would 'find' rats inside t...