Fines for Mobile Filling Station
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EUROPEAN PETROLEUM TO APPEAL
IT is illegal for a petrol company to sell petrol direct from a stationary tanker to motorists, the Dartford, Kent, magistrates ruled last week in a test case. In a case brought by Dartford Rural Council, European Petroleum Distributors Ltd. were fined a total of £15 on three summonses and ordered to pay costs of 30 guineas.
The company had pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting Mr. Ralph Grandi, owner of St. Bernard's Store, Main Road, West Kingsdown, to keen petroleum spirit on his premises without a licence; not guilty to being the occupier of premises—the petrol tanker—without a licence for storing spirit; and not guilty to contravening a regulation by replenishing the fuel tank of a mechanically propelled vehicle direct from the tanker.
Mr. Grandi, who pleaded not guilty to being the occupier of premises where petroleum spirit was kept without a licence, was found guilty and fined 15.
The company were fined £5 for each offence.
Mr. Cecil Jackson, chairman of European Petroleum, said later: "We shall appeal and will be asking the magistrates to state a case. We are prepared to go as far as the House of Lords if necessary."
At a previous hearing, which was adjourned, Mr. Alan Fletcher, prosecuting, said that on August 30, a Bank Holiday, a 2,500-gal. tanker owned by European Petroleum parked on the forecourt of Mr. Grandi's store. It stayed there for some hours—with two hand-operated petrol pumps mounted on the back and signs advertising petrol.
Among the customers was Mr. James Milburn, the Dartford Rural Council Clerk, who bought three gallons. Mr. Fletcher said it was a test case to determine the validity of the trading practice the company wished to adopt.
When the magistrates were considering the question of costs Mr. Robert Harman, for the company, said two chief constables, in counties less than 100 miles from London, had asked for, and been given by another company, mobile filling station facilities at racecourses.