Haulier who hid suspension fined
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A CUMBRIAN haulier said tO have concealed the fact that his lorry was under suspension in order to obtain an operator's licence was fined a total of £225 at Cockermouth.
Dennis Clemetson, of 2 London Row, Blindcrake, Cockermouth, did not appear last week when nine charges of using a lorry without an operator's licence, and nine of failing to produce goods vehicle and drivers' records, were read out.
Mr G. N. Worthington, prosecuting for the DoE, said the offences had been committed on dates between October 1974 and January this year, but police and officers of the Department had f ound it impossible to serve the necessary summonses on Mr Clemetson and these had been served by recorded delivery.
"There is little doubt that he has been deliberately avoiding service," he said.
Mr Clemetson, he said, had had the vehicle in question suspended by the Northern LA at Whitehaven for six months from September 11, 1974. In December the vehicle was seen by a traffic examiner at Carlisle, displaying an operator's licence. Authority had been persuaded to issue the licence and been kept in ignorance of the fact that the vehicle was suspended," said Mr Worthington, adding that the law specifically provided that an application must not include a vehicle under suspension.
Numerous requests had been made to Mr Clemetson to produce records relating to the vehicle and to drivers on dates between November and January, but none had ever been produced and this, he said, nullified the whole of the law's provision for supervision of vehicles and drivers.
He produced accounts from three firms which, he said, showed that the vehicle had been engaged in transporting their goods during the period of suspension.
Senior traffic examiner Mr John Scott of Carlisle said the lorry was carrying a load of steel arches when he saw it refuelling at Carlisle, and he took possession of the licence disc, current to February of this year, issued by the Scottish authority.
Mr Clemetson was fined £15 on each of the nine charges relating to the use of the vehicle, and £10 on each of the nine concerned with records.