The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 8

8 1 HOME NEWS TIm Friday April 18 1997 Mail order cigarettes firm 'gutted' by legal opinion EU moves to close tobacco loophole Dogs to bite into slice of Ill aaaaal high life auaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasaaKs aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafUaY Staph an Bates In Brussels fslllV A BIZARRE slice of Americana arrives in Britain today with the opening of the country's first dog bakery, writes Vi vtk Chaudhary. Based in Raynes Park, south London, the Three Dog Bakery is set to lure dog lovers with an assortment of lavish dog foods such as birthday and wedding cakes for love-struck mutts, dog pizzas, ribs and biscuits. The idea for the up-market canine confectionary conies from the United States, where the company already operates seven outlets with another 20 to open by the end of the year. The company was founded by Dan Dve and Mark Berklofr, who decided to produce the food using natural products and an assortment of exotic flavours after their pets turned their snouts up at the regular dog food on offer. To cater for the British market.

Three Dog Bakery has invented two new products; a biscuit in the shape of a postman's leg, with a lamb and mint flavouring, and an edible newspaper. Evan Wooton, general manager of Three Dog Bakery in the United States and self-confessed dog nut. said: "I don't think we are going over the top or being silly about our dogs. We believe that there's nothing better than pampering man's best friend." ETC chairman B. J.

Cun ningham. who declared him self "gutted'' by yesterday's announcement, added: "So much for the common mar ket. This is a sad day for Europe. It seems the advocate general does not believe in the first principle of the European Union 'the freedom of movement of goods and people'. "The man on the street has been crushed again.

All Europe offers is straight bananas and Euro-babble." The advocate general held that excise exemptions could be claimed only if purchasers travelled in person to buy goods and carry them home. His opinion stated that under directive 9212EEC on the movement of goods subject to excise duties, duties are as a general rule charged in the member state where products are acquired, but only where private individuals are making purchases on their own behalf. "The literal wording referred to transport operations carried out by the private individual and no one else," Mr Colomer's opinion said. As the firm considered its reaction last night, the legal opinion appeared likely to undermine a growing cross-border tobacco trade. That includes a burgeoning informal market in hand-rolling tobacco from Belgian border towns near Calais, which is now estimated to supply nearly two thirds of the British market.

said: "To have ruled otherwise would have been a major blow to all the retail trade, particularly people like newsagents because obviously other competitors would have been able to avoid paying excise duty. "If the decision had gone against us, it's difficult to estimate the loss, but we would expect it to be about a quarter of the market about 2 billion a year." Since 19H5, ETC has offered customers cheap cigarettes, marketed under the label Death and imported from a 'This is a sad day for Europe. The man on the street has been crushed again' shop run by a subsidiary company in Luxembourg. Customers paid that country's excise duties. Orders of up to 800 cigarettes could be placed with an agency called Man in Black another ETC subsidiary which arranged delivery but charged a fee.

An early consignment was confiscated by the authorities at Dover, and the High Court in London outlawed the practice but referred the case to the European Court. The firm claims it was following EU single market principles, which prevent barriers to trade. A BRITISH company's offer of cheap mail order cigarettes, importing them from European Union countries with lower excise duties, was on the verge of foundering last night as the European Court of Justice was advised that the practice infringed EU regulations. The advocate general's opinion at the court in Luxembourg appears likely to cut off a potentially lucrative tiade organised by the Enlightened Tobacco Company in Luxembourg, where cigarette duty is about 40 per cent less than in the United Kingdom. Although a final ruling by the court is not expected for several months, the judges are likely to follow the legal opinion of Ruiz-Jarabo Co-lomer, saving Britain's Customs and Excise alone an estimated 2 billion a year in lost duties.

Ten of the 14 other member states backed the British authorities' case because of the potentially crippling loss of revenue governments would experience if ETC's scheme was allowed Those backing Britain's case were Germany, Denmark. France. Greece, Ireland. Italy, the Netherlands. Austria.

Finland and Sweden, plus the European Commission and Imperial Tobacco. Mark Thomson, a spokesman for Customs and Excise, Niro, a Neopolitan mastiff, and Basil, a King Charles spaniel, wait patiently to taste the delicacies photoraph garry weaseh News in brief t20MHz Intel Pentium processor. 16Mb EDO RAM (expandable to 72Mb). 12Gb hard drive. e-speed CD-ROM drive.

33J3 bps (ax modem plus speaterphone Easy access buttons. Was coer 1099. CltK LOCAL ITOWI aaBaaaaaaaaaai ja WirW ifSS 999 No action over Yates drug claim PAULA Yates and Michael Hutchence will not face charges over allegations of a drugs find at their home last year, Scotland Yard announced last night. A spokeswoman said officers had been told there was insufficient evidence against the pair. Miss Yates and INXS singer Hutchence were in Australia when their home in Chelsea, west London, was raided in September after a nanny alleged she had found opium.

Police found a substance which they took away for testing. Miss Yates, 36, was arrested two weeks later after walking into her local police station. Her column in the Sun newspaper was suspended pending the investigation. Gary Younge Killer's plea rejected A TRIPLE killer will be flown to Britain today from Dublin after the Irish high court rejected his plea to be deemed a political prisoner. Alan Reeve, 49, escaped from Broadmoor hospital in 1981 and was arrested in Cork this month after British police submitted extradition warrants.

On Wednesday he had agreed to extradition, but changed his mind and yesterday unsuccessfully sought an order to prevent him being sent back. His counsel told the court that he would be maltreated if returned to Britain. Reeve was sent to Broadmoor at age 15 for killing a boy and later was convicted of the manslaughter of a fellow patient. On escaping he went to the Netherlands where he shot dead a policeman, and served 10 years of a 15-year sentence. jjy iff Laaaaaaaaa ijfBSlBim jjlJSr 133MHz Pentium processor.

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Bsasasaaa aaam asaaaal 1 "aal aaaaiwaj Costs bonus for firefighter LEGAL costs of at least 100,000 have been added to the awarded last month to a firefighter who claimed she was called a tart and forced to make tea for her male colleagues. Tania Clayton, 31, now of Monkton DeveriU, Wiltshire, alleged that her five years in the Hereford and Worcester brigade cost her her marriage and her health. The award against the county council means the Fire Brigades Union will recover its costs for backing Mrs Clayton. A council spokesman said it was working with the union on the brigade's equal opportunities policy. P133 Pentium' Multimedia PC 133MHz MX Amun MCM MMb EDO HAM.

UGb hrt i -ipMd CO-ROM tnvl 28.8 bpt fu modwn WMoatteas CI BBC to do Hardy's Tess A FOUR PART adaption orTess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, was announced yesterday by the BBC. The drama, to be filmed next spring, is the latest in a line of classic series since the BBC's success with Pride and Prejudice 18 months ago. Co-funding for the 4.5 million production is being sought from an American partner. Andrew Culf Poussin work to go abroad A Poussin landscape, Temps Calme, has been bought by the Getty Museum in the United States and will leave Britain, it emerged last night. The museum is believed to be paying the owners, the trustees of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, 16 million for the 17th century masterpiece.

AlexBelhs Correction aSSSSo aiJaPB rPeritiumMuromedMPC HfiPRWTR lMKKSSS Packard Bell I FREE I bS Jma rlli asVroaiWPC 1 vSSm "(gSS r- we MrmmLm' processor INttPRRIU yffTfffWtnSISS0 mjtnc- JiffiifffrEjcXy gEfrl with MMX" Technology I6 i GGMHzhtelPerTtiurrT' feCUOg aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasBspsawa processor. 1 1 WmmmmmmE 1111 Vlf I 111 1J Kit 1 1 16Mb EDO RAM. JaiAJi 200 MHz NTR Pentium Processor rRBFRWIBt gggggg lisGb hard drive. sTBr "tdrM I BwUnia irtii riiTe7iM Hi, i il 'Wj gSummMirtm ftj! I Vto pages per rnu ittlSimPOrnui I EM SET aaaaatnal I KB EE aaalaaaa I JUSZST1 marjMtEBBm EBSSI aaalkaai jmopairrao IWEZTa tmmfl 90fitmmt faaj faVJ MMMuraaDiA pc i raaaaaW 41 aaaaararMMre Aktor 'ISPJBaaa eoMHlwpror.eMbRAM.jobfd MCBOFmfJUM BaaBBaW AN ARTICLE headed MP in New Register Row (The Guardian. March 25) alleged that the then Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, Tim Smith, benefited from a 'grace and favour' property, Hall Barn Cottage, which had not been declared by him.

We wrongly stated that the house was rented to Mr Smith by Lord Burnnam. The house is not owned by Lord Bumham and he has no interest in that property. On the death of Lord Burnnam 's brother in 1993, Hall Bam Cottage passed into a trust in which the present Lord Burnnam has no involvement. We are advised by Lord Burnnam that Mr Smith pays a commercial rent. We also acknowledge that Ronald Bell, formerly MP for Beaconsfield, has never occupied Hall Barn Cottage.

We apologise to Lord Burnnam. who is the president of the Beaconsfield Conservative Association, for any distress or embarrassment caused by these errors. I Should Coco's successor Is out next week, and this, they want us to know, is where they ditch the Choppers and start driving lorries. Caroline Sullivan on Supergrass Friday Review page 11.