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Fines and costs of £188 for hgv charges
Page 46
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• Two Cheshire hauliers and two drivers were fined a total of £176, with £12 costs, after pleading guilty to charges involving the driving of goods vehicles by drivers not in possession of hgv driving licences, before the Oakmere, Cheshire, magistrates this week.
P. T. Studley, of Bickerton Hall, Malpas, was fined £64 on eight charges of unlawfully employing a driver to drive a goods vehicle without a hgv licence; Derek Harold Barnes, of Old Moss Farm, Tarvin, £32 on four similar charges, with £12 costs; David G. Barnes of Durban Avenue, Chester, £32 on eight charges of driving without an hgv licence; and W. A. Evans, of Girton Closet Ellesmere Port, £48 on 12 similar charges. Six charges of operating a vehicle without the authority of an 0 Licence, against Derek Barnes, were dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Prosecuting for the DoE, Mr David Turner said that Derek Barnes had held an 0 licence for two vehicles and in June, last year, had applied to add a third. A fleet inspection was carried out and it was reported that the maintenance facilities were inadequate. As a result, the application went to public inquiry and the Licensing Authority reduced the licence to one vehicle, on September 28. On the very same day, Studley applied to have the two Barnes vehicles that were not on 0 licence added to his own licence. That application was granted.
Consequently, until September 28 the responsibility for the drivers' actions lay on Barnes and after that date on Studley. When interviewed, Derek Barnes said that Studley owned the vehicles and he was managing the business for him. Studley said he had not bought the vehicles or employed the drivers, but merely "lent" his licence to Barnes. Evans and David Barnes had said they had thought they did not have to apply for hgv licences until their ordinary licences had run out.
Cross-examined by Mr Turner, Mr Barnes admitted that his brother had driven the vehicle a couple of times in September. However, he said he was certain it had not been used on the public road as no log-sheets had been made out for the dates in. question. He agreed that two log-sheets produced in court, for dates in September not concerned in the charges, showed that the vehicle had carried loads between Chester and Ellesmere Port and Chester and Shotton.
Mr R. Brimelow, defending, said that there was no evidence of the vehicle being seen or stopped on the public highway while carrying a load for hire or reward on the dates alleged. In respect of the hgv offences, the defendants had fallen foul of the very complicated transitional provisions due to a misunderstanding.
Announcing their decisions, the magistrates said that it was no excuse for the defendants to say they had misunderstood the hgv regulations. These regulations had been made perfectly clear for some time.