HR Industry News

How much do you know about HMRC?

— 5 February 2008 —

So you think you know HMRC? Did you know they use dogs?

It certainly came as a surprise to this reporter to learn that HMRC has trained dogs with a nose for money, among other items. Here are some lesser-known, yet interesting facts:

1. HM Revenue & Custom (HMRC) Detection dogs were first introduced 30 years ago in 1978, and have been one of the most successful tools in protecting society from the dangers of illegal drugs reaching the general public.

2. The first dogs were used to find cannabis, but they are now also trained to find Heroin, Cocaine, Ecstasy and Amphetamine, plus cash, products of animal origin (e.g. dairy, meat and fish) and tobacco.

3. The dogs sometimes identify other unusual things, which have included: cs spray, caviar, sea horses, scorpions, banned Chinese medicine, alligator heads, and bush meat (e.g. monkey meat). They have also detected people trying to enter the country illegally.

4. Last year (06/07) HMRC’s detection dogs seized a total of:

• £10,724,945 in cash (in various currencies)
• 9,390,136 cigarettes
• 3,568 kg of hand rolling tobacco
• 40.6 tonnes of products of animal origin (dairy, meat & fish)
• 1,434 kg of class A drugs

Meet Max

HMRC employee Max is a liver-and-white English Springer Spaniel, who is trained to detect any type of currency and works all around the London airports region, mainly at Heathrow.

The total amount of money Max has detected is just over £3.2 million, with his biggest single find in November 2007 - $390,000 US dollars.

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