No-test penalty was avoidable
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• An operator has been fined for using a truck without an annual test certificate because it did not know it could have applied for an exemption while a backlog of tests was processed.
Showplace Hospitality Suites from Ashorne near Banbury was ordered to pay £180 by Stratford-upon-Avon magistrates last week.
Simon Phillips, prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, told the magistrates: "The firm's mechanic had not realised that he could have applied for a special certificate in the meantime, exempting the firm from prosecution and allowing them to carry on using the vehicle untl a test date was given."
The firm was also ordered to pay £70 costs after admitting the offence.
Phillips told the court that the matter came to light when the truck was checked by the VI at Ashorne earlier this year In a letter to the court the firm said it had applied for a date to the Coventry test centre but faced long delays in waiting for a slot.