Halls wins appeal
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• Ferryhillbased Halls Construction Servies has won its High Court appeal against a conviction for using six-wheel-drive 36-tonne Moxy 5200 dump trucks at the wrong rate of excise duty.
Appeals by the two drivers of the trucks concerned against convictions for driving without HGV licences were dismissed.
The alleged offences were said to have arisen when the dump trucks were being moved between sites which were over 30km apart.
It was maintained that they could not be classified as "works trucks" in such circumstances. The company was lined 2405, and the two drivers 285 apiece.
Giving judgement, Lord Justice Woolfe said that the summonses against the company relating to the vehicle excise duty did not enable the defendants to appreciate the case they had to meet, nor did they
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give a clear idea of the maximum penalty.
A person charged with using an undertaxed vehicle on the public road should be told under the Schedule to the Vehicle (Excise) Act 1971 what penalties and back duty were recoverable.
Magistrates and defendants both needed to know precisely what sum was payable in accordance with the Act. Consequently the summonses were so defective that they ought not to have been entertained by the magistrates.
However, Woolfe felt that this argument could not be justified in the case of the driving licence offences.
He said that there was no need for a person charged with driving an HGV without the appropriate licence to know which licence he ought to have had, or how much it cost.
All he needed to know was that he was charged with driving on the public road without the appropriate licence.