Truck theft victims sue parts suppliers
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Amanda Bradbury • A group of 48 hauliers is pressing ahead with plans to sue in the civil court two parts supply firms which, they claim, helped to dispose of millions of poundsworth of trucks.
Vehicle parts supplier Richard Justice & Sons based in Winter Close, Underwood, Nottingham, is accused in the writ of helping to dispose of 13 sets of named parts owned by the group and stolen from April 1992 to April this year.
Nottinghamshire Police said this week that they have interviewed the company and no criminal charges will be brought against its directors.
The director of a second firm named on the hauliers' writ has been charged with truck theft, but has had his assets frozen following a court order made in November last year. The second firm's proprietor, Richard Carlisle Tuxford, of Old Epperston Road, Lovvdham, Nottingham, is due to appear with 19 other defendants at Tower Bridge Magistrates Court today (Thursday 12 May) on truck theft charges.
The writ claims that Tuxford, whose firm had a £3m turnover, transferred his business and assets to the premises of RJS so allegedly breaking the terms of the court order against him. The writ also alleges that Tuxford worked for RJS for no consideration.
The hauliers' claim for compensation is for £1.1m plus any profits made by the two companies.
The group, made up of hauliers and ownaccount operators who are all insured by Norwich Union, is understood to have issued a previous writ on which Tuxford and others were named.
This followed enquiries made by the insurer which has shadowed a major enquiry into the largest ever known ring of truck thieves in the UK, Operation Sallow, which is headed up by the Metropolitan Police. Further civil writs against alleged members of the ring have not been ruled out by a spokesman involved in the insurance investigation.