Court questions UK VED
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• A county court judge has criticised unfair road tax laws which forced him to impose £1,000 back-duty on a British truck driver who works abroad.
Justice Clegg said Chris Hooper faced paying double tax because UK law insists his DVLA-registered truck should be taxed in Britain, although Hooper drives in the EU under a £4,000 Euro-vignette.
Clegg ordered Hooper to pay £1,033 back duty to the MLA but gave him an absolute discharge and quashed a magistrate's £250 fine.
His Basildon County Court decision came after Hooper, who is based in the Gulf, had proved that he spent only 40 days in the UK last year, when he drove home unladen simply to visit his wife.
Hooper was appealing against a magistrates court niling that he should pay British tax although most of his work was in the Gulf.
Clegg criticised a clash between EU and UK law that forced him to find against drivers such as Hooper, saying the directive that allowed him to drive legally in the EU is not recognised in the UK.
He sympathised with Hooper's claim that he had no time to apply for unladen vehicle tax in the UK after hearing that Hooper was pulled over as soon as he arrived in the UK.