Customs investigate Cherie over jewellery

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Customs investigated the £15,000 jewellery that Cherie brought back from China trip
By Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 25 September 2005

Cherie Blair was the subject of a Customs and Excise inquiry last week into Chinese jewellery worth thousands of pounds she brought back from foreign trips.

The Prime Minister's wife is reported to have been forced to pay VAT and duty on the items, including pearls, worth around £15,000. It was claimed last week that Mrs Blair brought the pearls in Hong Kong on an official tour of the East Asia during which news of David Kelly's death first surfaced.

Downing Street dismissed the report as "wildly inaccurate" as it sought to protect Mrs Blair from more negative publicity connected with her shopping habits.

But last night it emerged that Customs had, in fact, looked into the question of unpaid duty on jewellery brought by the Prime Minister's wife in July 2003.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article315034.ece