Midwinter, trading as Midwinter Transport, of Newent, pleaded guilty before Chester magistrates to using a vehicle with dangerous parts.
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Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Keith Henry said that a two-axled Mercedes rigid had been stopped in a check at the Dunkirk dynamic axle weighbridge. A vehicle examiner found that all six wheelnuts on the offside rear wheel were loose and that the stud holes were elongated. In the examiner's opinion wheel loss was imminent; he believed the defects were long standing.
For Midwinter, Mark Hammond, solicitor, said that he could not understand how it had happened. His 21 vehicles and 12 trailers were regularly maintained. The wheelnuts on all the vehicles and trailers were fitted with yellow markers and the wheelnuts were checked twice a week with a torque wrench.
Fining Midwinter £200, with 2.85 costs, the magistrates said that somewhere along the line there had been human error.