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"if any person uses or keeps on a public road
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any vehicles for which a licence is not in force . . he will be liable to the greater of the following penalties . £50 or an excise penalty equal to five times the amount of duty chargeable in respect of the vehicle."
In our view once the trade plates have been removed from the vehicle, however temporarily and for whatever reason, it could not be held that they provided the necessary tax cover for the vehicle while they were not displayed on it. Paragraph 33 of The Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 1971 states that no person shall use a vehicle on a public road by virtue of a trade licence except . . . "that there shall be fixed to and displayed on the vehicle the trade plates ...".
An offence may also be committed if it could he shown by the prosecuting authority that the trade plates used on the vehicle at that time were not being used for the purpose for which regulations allow them to he used. In other words if the plates are used on a vehicle purely to enable an employee to commute between his home and his place of employment then this could be considered to be outside their authorized use.
Paragraph 35(4) of the above mentioned regulations lists as follows the uses to which a motor trader may put a vehicle displaying trade plates: (a) for its test or trial or the test or trial of its accessories or equipment in the ordinary course of construction or repair or after completion in either such case; (b) for proceeding to or from a public weighbridge for ascertaining its unladen weight or to or from any place for its registration or inspection by a person acting on behalf of the Secretary of State; (c) for its test or trial for the benefit of a prospective purchaser to any place for the purpose of such test or trial, or for returning after such test or trial;
(d) for its test or trial for the benefit of a person interested in promoting publicity in regard to it. for proceeding at the instance of such a person to any place for the purpose of such test or trial, or for returning after such test or trial;
(e) for delNering it to the place where the purchaser intends to keep it; (t) for demonstrating its operation or the operation of its accessories or equipment when being handed over to the purchaser;
(g) for delivering it from one part of his premises to another part of his premises, or for delivering it from his premises to the premises of, or between parts of premises of, another manufacturer or repairer of or dealer in mechanically propelled vehicles or removing it from the premises of another manufacturer or repairer of or dealer in mechanically propelled vehicles direct to his own premises; (h) for proceeding to or returning from a workshop in which a body or a special type of equipment or accessory is to be or had been fitted to it or in which it is to be or has been painted or repaired;
(i) for proceeding from the premises of a manufacturer or repairer of or dealer in mechanically propelled vehicles to a place from which it is to be transported by train, ship or aircraft or for proceeding to the premises of such a manufacturer, repairer or dealer from a place to which it has been so transported; (1) for proceeding to or return from any garage, auction room or other place at which vehicles are usually stored or usually or periodically offered for sale and at which the vehicle is to be or has been stored or is to be or has been offered for sale as the case may be; (k) for proceeding to or returning from a place where it is to be or has been tested, or for proceeding to a place where it is to be broken up or otherwise dismantled.