Magistrates have ordered the disposal of more than 500 guitars made with wood controlled by international trade restrictions.
The guitars were bound for a distributor in Sittingbourne, Kent, but border force agents seized the shipment as it entered the Port of Felixstowe on October 11.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs applied for the instruments to be condemned at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court, in Ipswich, on Tuesday.
The court heard how Selectron UK Ltd had been granted one of two types of legally required permit to import guitars with components made from Dalbergia Latifolia, or East Indian Rosewood, which became subject to new trade rules in January 2017.
In accordance with the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, magistrates granted an uncontested application for the condemnation of 519 Cordoba guitars made with the wood.
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