TNT loses appeal on overloading offence
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II TNT (UK), which has never been convicted of any offence in relation to its 7,000 vehicles, last week lost its appeal against a 11,080 overloading fine. The penalty was imposed by Penrith magistrates after the firm admitted to overloading a 7.5tonne truck.
Vehicle inspectors found the truck grossing at 9,030kg during a spot-cheek at Hacker, just north of Carlisle, last August.
The case focused on a parcel which had been wrongly labelled by TNT's client. This was heavier than TNT loaders assumed and therefore pushed the truck's weight over its legal GVW. TNT claimed it should not have been liable for the omission of a third party over which it had no control.
At Carlisle Crown Court TNT's solicitor Michael Cunningham claimed that not enough attention had been paid to the firm's guilty plea or to the circumstances of the incident. But Recorder David Sumner dismissed the appeal, saying the magistrates' decision was "perfectly correct".
He ordered the firm to pay .£350 costs and the original fine.
Sumner commented that the magistrates had obviously taken the circumstances of the case into account. If not, the fine would have been about /1,600.