Mrs Ellis, for one, will be relieved. No longer will Customs brand her a 'criminal'

The news that the Chancellor is to give cross-Channel shoppers the green light to bring back unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco without being bothered by Customs and Excise will come too late for Pam Ellis.

The 63 year-old widow is an unlikely law-breaker. But the grandmother from Nottingham was seized by Customs officers for the "crime" of having 200 cigarettes more than current guidelines allow.

She was left stranded at Dover after being marched off a coach carrying 50 shoppers back from a day-trip to Belgium, most of them pensioners. Mrs Ellis called it a humiliating experience that left her feeling like a criminal.

She was ordered into an interrogation room where she was left, she claims, without food or water for two hours while both she and her bags were searched. Although the goods were worth just £233, Customs refused to believe they were purely for personal use and confiscated her bags of tobacco and alcohol.

"The Customs officer who stopped me behaved like a very obnoxious creature," said Mrs Ellis. "He gave me no reason for singling me out and was arrogant and rude."

She was taken off the coach which left without her an hour later. With nothing else to drink, she ended up sipping lager from a can to quench her thirst.

"By this point I was pretty scared. I was searched and they treated me like a criminal." It took her nine hours to get back home.

Victoria Baker, Mrs Ellis's solicitor, said of the incident, which took place last month: "There are no limits on what people can bring back from within the EU – there are only guidelines. They have no legal backing whatsoever, as long as the goods are for personal use or are gifts."

The guidelines consider as "reasonable" 800 cigarettes, 200 cigars and 1kg of tobacco. Mrs Ellis had 1,000 cigarettes and 3kg of tobacco. But she is in no doubt that she was the innocent victim of heavy-handed behaviour. "These Customs people are abusing the power given to them," she said. "When there are people who bring back vanloads of alcohol and tobacco, why do they stop people like me?"