Danger Plea in Weighing Case
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE driver of a lorry and trailer who, after being stopped by the police about 2.15 a.m. on July 2 was asked to take the lorry into a yard to be weighed with its load, appealed before the West Riding Quarter Sessions Appeals Committee, at Wakefield, last week, against a conviction at Uppermill Police Court, where he was fined El on a charge of refusing to allow the lorry to be weighed laden.
Mr. G. Raymond Hinchcliffe, for the respondents, said that on the occasion when the appellant was stopped, two police constables and an inspector on the staff of the West Riding Weights and Measures Department were on duty at Uppermill, engaged in checking the weights of heavy vehicles. For this purpose, a set of portable weighing machines had been placed in a yard. When the appellant was asked to take the lorry into the yard to be weighed, he replied : "I refuse to uncouple the trailer." He was then requested to reverse the lorry and trailer into the yard, but declined to do so.
Cross-examined during his evidence, one of the police officers said that the appellant asked the police for a written agreement to say that they would be responsible for leaving the trailer in the road.
Mr. A. P. Peaker, for the appellant, said that if the vehicle and trailer (carrying goods worth £2,000) had been reversed, the trailer would have turned, and it wand have been impossible to control it. On the other hand, if the trailer were detached, the policy of insurance in respect of the vehicle became inoperative, and to have left the trailer on the road uncovered by insurance would have been an offence, for which the owner could have been prosecuted.
The appeal was dismissed, with costs against the appellant.