Giambrone Provides Assistance For Vehicle Seizure From Customs Offices

As far as due diligence duties, loyalty and subordination are concerned, in the case of non compliance, employees may not only be facing disciplinary sanctions, but they might also have to face property liability, with significant amounts of money involved.

Frequently, lorry or truck drivers who are responsible for the international transportation of goods on behalf of Italian companies, take advantage of the company's vehicle to illegally smuggle weapons, tobacco or drugs.

Lorries and trucks are routinely checked by customs offices and consequently seized. The employee is arrested.

In this specific circumstance, Italian companies have to suddenly face the burden of proving they are not involved into such activities.

It is moreover necessary to have the vehicles released in the shortest time possible. This is even a much more urgent matter, on grounds of the fact that, in the majority of cases, seized vehicles are stored in parking lots with costs that have to be born by the employer.

Proving the employer is not involved into such criminal activities is not always an easy endeavour. It is often required to wait until the end of the trial, especially in the case the release of the vehicle is subject to the foreign court.

It is, as a matter of fact, the employer's responsibility to prove they have taken all precautionary measures aimed at hindering the possibility of criminal activities, as provided by the national or international legislation. It is therefore crucial to produce a number of documents relating to the internal regulation of the company in order to allow foreign customs offices to collect...