No proof of ownership
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• Yeovil-based car transporter operator WaIon has been cleared of using of using a vehicle with an insecure load because West Yorkshire Police failed to prove that the company owned or operated the vehicle or employed the driver.
Prosecuting, Jayne Taylor told Wakefield Magistrates that last April police discovered a car transporter on the hard shoulder of the M1 Motorway. The driver was re-securing the last vehicle on the transporter, which had slipped off the rear and been dragged along the carriageway for 150 yards.
A statement from a forensic scientist was read which said he had found that the strap used to secure the vehicle concerned was worn.
Maintaining that there was no case for the company to answer, Jonathan Lawton, defending, said that when a police officer interviewed fleet engineer Gary Greenway he had not asked if the company owned or operated the vehicle. Neither had he checked if the driver was an employee.
The magistrates directed that the company's defence costs be met out of public funds.