There are not many MAN TGM 4x4s roaming the roads. A 59-year-old man nevertheless tried to evade the attention of the German customs authorities.
It's really simple enough. At least on paper.
If you have stayed abroad for at least 12 months, you must, under certain conditions, take e.g. the car home without having to pay duty.
Such are the rules within the EU and for some countries outside the union. For example Switzerland.
So that's what a 59-year-old man from Breisgau in Germany tried when he acquired a MAN TGM 4×4. A proper monster he would use as a motorhome.
READ ALSO: 24-year-old had his car impounded – just not by the police
But it took him some time. The man wrote to the German customs authorities that he had spent one year in Switzerland and that he now wanted to take his MAN TGM 4×4 home with him to Germany. That way he could avoid paying customs duty. It's called duty-free moving goods.
That's what Auto Motor und Sport writes.
But the customs officials became suspicious and initiated criminal proceedings against the man. The authorities also succeeded in proving that the man had never stayed in Switzerland.
Instead, he had knitted together a proforma address so that it looked as if he came directly from the Alps and home to Germany.
So now, in addition to the import tax of 126,000 euros, which corresponds to 940,000 kroner, he must pay a fine of another 20,000 euros. All in all, the bill for the fraud comes to more than one million Danish kroner.
On top of that comes the money the 59-year-old German has given for the absurdly large motorhome. The Boosted editors have found a used TGM 4×4 from 2014 at Expeditionmeister.
And even though the car has completed 10 years and 126,000 kilometers, it still costs 285,000 euros. This corresponds to DKK 2.1 million. It is not clear from the story what the 59-year-old paid for his copy (without duty, ed.)
