Davies ran three without road tax or registration
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• '1'he operation of three untaxed and unregistered vehicles led to Derbyshire haulage company David G Davies & Sons and its managing director having to pay fines, costs and back duty totalling 24,350.82.
The company, appearing before the Glossop magistrates, admitted to two offences of the fraudulent use of vehicle registration marks and six offences of using vehicles without excise licences. It was fined a total of £2,000, ordered to pay 22,000 in back duty and 2250 towards the costs of the prosecution. Managing director David Davies admitted making a misleading statement in an application for a vehicle excise licence and was fined 2100.
Christopher Worthy, prosecuting for the North Western Licensing Authority, said that of five vehicles acquired by the company since February 1987, three had been operated before being properly taxed and registered. Two vehicles had been acquired on 1 August 1987, one of which was properly taxed and registered and the other was not.
The matter first came to light on 2 June. The odometer reading on 2 June was 48,425km and tachograph charts had been traced back to April when the odometer reading was 35,828km.
The vehicle that the company acquired on 1 August had been seen at Knutsford at the beginning of December with no excise licence displayed.
The odometer reading had been 44,470km. That vehicle had been specified on the 0licence on 4 August, but it had not been registered until 4 January 1988.
Tachograph charts obtained in respect of the third vehicle, which had been acquired at the end of October or the beginning of November, showed use in December. The earliest chart, dated 14 December, showed an odometer reading of 15,500km. The first attempt to register that vehicle was not made until 14 January.
The obvious reason for the offences was to avoid payment of vehicle excise duty, said Worthy, but the company had also gained the advantage of delaying the date of the first annual test and of enhancing the secondhand value of the vehicles registered in 1988 instead of 1987. The company's administrative organisation had already been a shambles and the load had become intolerable when it had obtained 98% of the work of a major food distribution company.