High i court to define ice-cream van
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• The legal defin ition of an ice-cream van is likely to be settled by the High Court. Judges will decide if removable shelving fitted in a refrigerated vehicle carrying icecream makes the vehicle concerned "specially equipped
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for door-to-door selling", and therefore exempt from the tachograph legislation.
Porthmadoc-based T&K Davies is to appeal against its conviction by Prestatyn magistrates on three drivers' hours and tachograph offences.
The magistrates gave the company an absolute discharge, ordering it to pay £240 costs.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Richard Green said the alleged offences came to light when a refrigerated van belonging to the company was stopped in a roadside check.
Managing director Kenneth Davies said the van was loaded with ice cream using a fork-lift truck and portable shelving which prevented the ice cream melting.
Because of the number of drops to shops, canteens, transport cafes and the like, he considered that it was door-todoor selling.
He did not believe that the EC drivers' hours and tachograph rules applied, and they only used a tachograph to see what the driver had done, said Davies.
He agreed the portable shelving was removed after each journey.
Green said it was conceded that the van was engaged on door-to-door selling.But he maintained the vehicle did not pass the test laid clown by the European Court as a "vehicle specially adapted" in the Thomas Scott Bakers case.
Defending, Robert Lang argued that the Thomas decision no longer applied as it had interpreted the previous EC regulations, rather than the current rules.