Customs officials have rejected accusations of ignoring a court ruling about the way they search cross-Channel shoppers.

Legally, travellers are allowed to bring back unlimited amounts of alcohol and cigarettes as long as it is for personal use.

What can I bring in?

As much as you like for your own personal use But Customs may stop anyone carrying more than a "minimum indicative level" of: 800 cigarettes 90 litres of wine 10 litres of spirits 110 litres of beer 20 litres of fortified wine

And the High Court ruled randomly stopping vehicles looking for smuggled alcohol and tobacco broke European Union laws.

But lawyers acting for cross-Channel operator Hoverspeed say officials are still stopping vehicles without any suspicion that goods are being brought back for anything other than personal consumption.

Customs & Excise insists it has amended its procedures carefully to implement the ruling.

The High Court case was brought by Hoverspeed and a group of day trippers who had had their goods seized and car impounded following a random stop.

Illegal trade

Lord Justice Brooke and Mr Justice Bell ruled Customs had not proved it had "reasonable grounds" for stopping the car, so "the goods in it should therefore not have been seized. Nor should the car".

But Customs made it very clear the ruling was not a "green light" for travellers to bring back as much alcohol or cigarettes as they wanted.

The chances of being stopped

15m arrive through Channel ports each year About 3% (450,000) stopped 0.2% (30,000) 'cannot satisfy' Customs 10,000 vehicles a year impounded Source: Customs and Excise

It says the court acknowledged the ruling was "not likely to make much difference in practice".

In a statement it said: "Customs does not want to interfere with the right of people to cross the Channel to buy goods for their own use, but we remain committed to tackling those who bring in tobacco or alcohol for money.

"This illegal trade costs almost �4bn a year - more than �130 a year for every person in the country - and is putting honest traders out of business."