Appeal cuts fine by 90%
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• A Birmingham owner-driver who took over a vehicle on trial was convicted of using it without an 0-licencebut his fine has been slashed by 90% on appeal. Norman Anderson, of Titania Close, Frankley took over the Iveco from RT Transport.
During the appeal Ipswich Crown Court heard that Anderson had been stopped by police at Felixstowe with a load of scrap metal. There was no tax disc in the windscreen. Anderson told the police that he had only bought the vehicle the day before and was going to get it taxed. RT Transport had said Anderson could use their 0-licence until he had paid them off: he was to pay them 1130 a week for seven months.
Felixstowe Magistrates fined Anderson the maximum penalty of 12,500 after he pleaded guilty by letter to a charge of unauthorised use. Anderson told Ipswich Crown Court that the 0-licensing system was very complicated. He had thought he was covered as he had not paid for the vehicle. He had agreed to buy the vehicle by taking over its hire purchase payments on a trial basis.
The arrangement was that he would take the vehicle for a month as a trial before starting to pay. It did not work out financially, so he gave the vehicle back after a short period.
Anderson believed that RT Transport had since gone into liquidation and was unemployed by the time the use came up at Felixstowe.
Anderson had been an owner-driver for 15 years until 1990 when the recession came along. He then worked for two companies that both went into liquidation and he was made bankrupt himself. He then found work for a short time driving to Spain before being laid off in 1993.
When he had the offer of the vehicle, he had thought it was an opportunity to get back into business following his bankruptcy. lie had been an HGV driver for 20 years and this was his first offence.
He had been out of work since August, apart from two weeks as an agency driver.
Anderson agreed that he had continued to use the vehicle for about six weeks after being stopped.
Cutting the fine to £250, Judge John Turner said that the fine imposed by the magistrates was completely and utterly excessive in the circumstances.