Court fines Ukrainian woman for importing pickup truck under someone else's passport

The Uzhhorod City District Court of Zakarpattia Region issued a ruling on the administrative liability of Ukrainian citizen Lyudmyla Vasyliivna Banik. The woman was held liable for the illegal import of a Nissan Navara vehicle into the country, using a foreign citizen's document and attempting to justify her actions by claiming the vehicle was transferred for the needs of the army.

Manipulations at the border crossing

According to the materials of case No. 308/6410/26, the incident occurred in July 2022. At that time, Banik L.V. crossed the border through the "Luzhanka" customs post, importing the pickup truck under the "temporary import for up to 1 year" regime. During customs control, she presented a passport of a citizen of Hungary and indicated a place of residence abroad. This status allowed her to use a preferential regime, which exempts non-residents from paying customs duties.

However, an additional check conducted using state databases and requests to local self-government bodies revealed otherwise. It was established that Banik L.V. is a citizen of Ukraine and is registered in the village of Machola in Berehiv District, Zakarpattia Region. As a resident, she was obliged to make a written declaration and pay all import customs duties prescribed by law.

Attempt to use volunteers' names

In autumn 2025, the offender submitted an application to the customs authorities, claiming that the imported pickup truck had been transferred free of charge to a serviceman of one of the units with the assistance of the public organisation "Volunteers of the OUN Battalion". To substantiate her claims, she provided a copy of the acceptance-transfer act.

Checks by customs officers and the court revealed significant discrepancies in the provided documents:

• The provided transfer act lacks the signatures of both the importer herself and the serviceman.
• The Main Directorate of the Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the command of the relevant military unit, in response to official requests from customs, stated that the specified Nissan Navara vehicle had never been registered in the military equipment records and was not registered in the electronic accounting systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Court ruling and fine amount

The court concluded that Lyudmyla Vasyliivna Banik intentionally submitted documents with "non-resident" status to evade paying customs duties totalling 126,436.94 UAH, which included import duty, excise tax, and VAT.

The court issued the ruling in this case on 2 October 2026. Banik L.V. was found guilty of committing an offence under Part 1 of Article 485 of the Customs Code of Ukraine. She was sentenced to an administrative penalty in the form of a fine of 50% of the amount of concealed payments, which amounts to 63,218.47 UAH. Additionally, 665.60 UAH in court fees were recovered from the offender.