£50 0-centre fine
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A WEST MIDLANDS company has been fined £50 for failing to keep its vehicles at the operating centre specified on its operator's licence.
LPK Upholstery admitted failing to notify the Licensing Authority of a change of condition, when it appeared before Stourbridge magistrates.
David Wilkins, prosecuting for the West Midland Traffic Area, said inquiries had revealed that drivers were taking their vehicles home at night when the licence specified that the vehicles should be parked at the operating centre when not in use. Any change should have been notified to the LA.
In a letter to the court, the company said that the drivers had been allowed to take their vehicles home after loading at the factory, so that they could make an early start the following morning.
The vehicles were not parked indiscriminately outside the drivers' houses, but were parked in lorry parks and other places authorised by the local authority.
The company had taken the phrase "when riot in use" to mean at the weekend and at holiday periods.
The company also admitted six offences of permitting drivers to exceed the hours limits, being fined £300 with £35 costs. Of the two drivers involved, Robert Jones of Brierley Hill was fined £20 with £35 costs on two hours offences, and Douglas Beckett of Wolverhampton was fined £300 with £35 costs on four hours offences and two of making false entries in tachograph charts.