Rely on Commercial Motor guide
Page 23
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• An owner driver who had mistakenly gone to what he thought was the nearest available weighbridge to check-weigh, told Macclesfield magistrates that he would not make that mistake again following the publication of the Commercial Motor Guide to UK Public Weighbridges. Gary Mellow, trading as High Peak Haulage, of Buxton, had pleaded not guilty to overloading the rear axle of his vehicle by 1,200kg, when he appeared before the magistrates in January, on the grounds that he had been on his way to the nearest available weighbridge to check-weigh. However, when the case came before the magistrates again Mellow changed his plea to guilty, saying that he had discovered that there were three weighbridges closer to Knutsford, where he had been stopped, than the one he had been heading to at Sale.
Mellow said that he had been carrying a split load of tarmac. He had tipped at Tabley but the tarmac had been loaded overnight and a crust had formed on the top.
When he tipped the body up it took a while for the load to break away and when it finally did so the whole load shifted to the rear. As his next tip was at Ashton-under-Lyne, he decided to go to the Sale weighbridge.
As a result, he was now informed where the other
public weighbridges were and he would be able to use them in the future.
The magistrates fined Mellor 2100 with £55 costs.