PRAISE for customs officers' efforts to control cross-Channel tobacco and alcohol smuggling has been levied by the organisation's boss in his annual report.

Richard Broadbent, chairman of Customs and Excise, said some media comment had been one-sided regarding officers activities to control cross-Channel smuggling,

He said: "In any organisation of the size and complexity of Customs and Excise there will be individual cases where we would wish to have performed better.

"Just one tenth of one per cent, one in a thousand, of those who have crossed the Channel in the past two years, have had tobacco or alcohol seized by Customs.

"Of those seizures, the judgement made by customs officers has been reversed on review or appeal in just one per cent of cases.

"Even one misjudgement is to be regretted and I am never slow to apologise personally in cases that come to me. Overall, however, a difficult job is being done well."

He thanked his staff who "perform a wide range of tasks, many of them of considerable practical complexity requiring careful judgement."