Stop this abuse'
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A self-employed
21tenham haulier, Ralph vies, avoided paying usands of pounds in road by exploiting a loophole in law. Gloucester Crown Jrt heard last week. )assing a suspended jail .tence on Davies, Judge :hony Bulger called for the phole to be plugged. kt Gloucester Crown Court judge said the present tern, which allows
operators to get registration numbers for new lorries without having to tax them, "simply cries out for abuse".
Now this has been exposed, one hopes that the Ministry in London will deal with it," said the judge.
Davies admitted four charges of fraudulently using a registration mark and one of making a false or misleading declaration to get a vehicle excise licence. He was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for a year and ordered to pay prosecution costs of up to £1,000.
Patrick Curran, prosecuting, said Davies ran a small haulage operation, transporting lambs' skins to Spain and then bringing hack loads of fruit or wine.
Curran said Davies took advantage of the system which allowed hauliers to apply for a registration number allocation before they even bought a new vehicle.
"Each number is put on a self adhesive label known as a V53," he said. "But the allocation of a number has nothing to do with registration. He would obtain number plates and then use them for months at a time without having registered the vehicle at all."
In one case, said Curran, Davies bought a Scania tractive unit from a Manchester firm for £42,574 and had it delivered unregistered. He used a registration number on it and ran it from June 1983 until August, when he had a new "A" number allocated — but still did not tax it for a further two months.
By the time he did lawfully tax it, he had evaded £1,128 duty, said Curran.
Stanley Cartledge, for Davies, said he had now repaid the outstanding duty in full as well as a penalty amount of more than £4,000.