Stockmell costs cut
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• Warwick Crown Court has reduced fines, costs and back duty totalling £2,778.43 that had been imposed on Stockmen Transport of Coventry by the Solihull magistrates.
The company had failed to appear at the magistrates court when the fines were imposed for using a vehicle without an excise licence or ministry plate, and which was not specified on its operators licence. It had also been alleged that the company had twice failed to ensure that a driver returned his tachograph charts within 21 days, and that on four occasions it had failed to keep tachographs running.
When the company appealed to the crown court it was said that when one of the company's vehicles was stopped in a check in April, no excise licence, no 0 licence identiy disc or ministry plates were displayed, Tachograph charts dated 16 and 17 March ought to have been returned to the company and the charts showed that on four occasions the driver had failed to use the mode switch.
Evidence was given by Stockmen managing director Michael Luke that the vehicle had not been acquired until March and it had been taxed from 1 April. Asked why the company had failed to attend before the magistrates, Luke said he had been unaware the case was coming up. The company had employed a transport manager who had since left.
For the company it was said that there was a licence for 14 vehicles in possession with six to be acquired, and the company had neglected to specify the vehicle concerned on the licence due to an administrative oversight.
Recorder Michael Pratt QC reduced the £600 fine for using a vehicle without an excise licence to £300, and the £750 fine for using it without an 0 licence to £400. He also reduced the amount of back duty payable from £643.43 to £171.68, but he dismissed the company's appeals against fines of £150 for using the vehicle without a ministry plate and of 2100 on each of the remaining six offences, ordering Stockmen to pay £400 of the prosecution's costs.