What travellers may think is a white lie could turn out to be the undoing of Christmas.

Customs officers at the Bermuda International Airport are on the lookout for false declaration forms.

Anyone caught dishonestly filling out customs paperwork to hide or undervalue their Christmas purchases runs the risk of losing them entirely.

They won?t be returned until after the first of the year.

?The reason for that,? says Collector of Customs Winniefred Fostine-DeSilva, ?is because our officers are so snowed-under around this time with people making false declarations, it?s impossible for them to get to the case files. So they can?t get them back to you by Christmas.?

Mrs. Fostine-DeSilva is the Chief Enforcer of Bermuda?s laws on importation.

She says Cup Match and Christmas generate the highest number of false declarations, and as a result, create an influx of seized goods sent to the Queen?s Warehouse in Hamilton for safekeeping.

Whether it?s an engagement ring for your holiday lover, a new cell phone for your sister, or a Tickle Me Elmo doll for your toddler ? when your would-be presents are taken, they?re gone until well after Christmas ? probably for 30 days.

It?s a Scrooge-like act, backed up by the law.

?It?s unfair to give you leeway, when my case was before yours, because you have some young child,? said Mrs. Fostine-DeSilva.

She made no apologies.

Geno Jones, a 17-year-old at the time, got caught up in the Christmastime dragnet a few years ago.

He was returning from Las Vegas with his father and a new X-Box video game system.

He properly declared the game console, but not the three new video games buried near the bottom of his suitcase.

The customs officer was unforgiving, and Mr. Jones, now 21 still seems a little bitter about the whole experience.

?They took my suitcases for about two to three weeks,? he said in an e-mail message from his university in Halifax.

?They came up with prices for whatever they thought was new in my suitcases and made me pay three times the customs amount.?

Mrs. Fostine-DeSilva has no reason to be familiar with this individual case, but she points out that customs officers have the right to charge up to fives times the amount of duty payable when they catch a declaration cheater.

Officers are consistently spotting false declarations even though they inspect only five to ten percent of all passengers.

For those who properly declare, customs duty is assessed at 25 percent and brings in incredibly large amounts of revenue for Government each year.

Last fiscal year, for example, the number was more than $212 million.

And in the past seven years that Mrs. Fostine-DeSilva has been chief enforcer the revenue number has risen every single year.

This year?s estimate tops $217 million.

?We don?t have income tax as you know. Customs duty is approximately 31 percent of Government?s annual revenue.

?That?s what supports all your social programmes ? education, financial assistance, helps to create the money to create houses for those who are less fortunate than us.?

Even Geno Jones, the once bitten traveller, understands the significance of customs duty, but the one part he hasn?t forgiven ? or forgotten ? is the way he was treated.

?I can?t remember exactly what was said, but I know they weren?t nice about it,? said Mr. Jones. And after they finished looking through my things, taking my clothes out and all that at the airport, they made me pack everything back up myself before taking the suitcases.?

The complaint from him would not be the first Mrs. Fostine-DeSilva has faced.

Once again, she made no apologies.

?We do get complaints from the public that they?re getting unjustly treated,? she said.

?It?s not an easy job. They (customs officers) don?t like to do it anymore than you like to give up your goods.

?They don?t like to rifle through your clothing and your good items and stuff like that. That?s the nature of the job. It?s a necessary evil.?