All persons receiving goods from overseas should note that from now on Big Brother will be watching you at HM Customs, The Wharf with his brand new X-Ray eye.

The Finance Department has installed a new x-ray scanner, which will detect everything from bombs to bottles of brandy. The new machine, which stands about 2 metres high, is not in full operation at this stage as staff of the Customs Office are familiarising themselves with the equipment.

Angela Francis, Senior Customs Officer said that the Department had been hoping to obtain a scanner for quite some time, as this will greatly improve the service they provide to the public. "It will be a big improvement to the system we now have," she said.

It will no longer be necessary for customs officials to have to open all packages or other items up to the size of 50 by 40 centimetres unless they are suspicious of what the scanner picks up. The package is simply placed into the machine, Scanmax 25, and the contents appear on a colour monitor.

Angela said that elsewhere the Scanmax 25 is "one of Europe’s most reliable and widely used scanners." She said that on St Helena, the main items likely to be smuggled in are cigarettes and alcohol or other high duty items but Scanmax 25 will help to detect these items.

Customs in conjunction with the Postmistress will also be using a mail scanner on smaller items up to the size of a UK telephone directory received through the post. This device accepts paper clips and staples but will detect letter bombs and razor blades, although Angela said that fortunately her section has never detected any items such as letter bombs. She added that thousands of these mail scanners are used in Embassies and Governments overseas.

Funding for the bid came from the Good Government Funds and the equipment should be fully operational in time for the Christmas consignment on the RMS St Helena.