Dow Freight in the dock
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Dow Freight Services, Dowman Commercial Vehicles, two directors of Dowfreight and two former employees of the company have pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to conspiring to avoid vehicle excise duty by using vehicles with false registration marks, and by forging international permits and journey sheets.
The former managing director of Dolman Commercial Vehicles, Graham Brooks, has denied conspiracy to fraudulently allow false registration marks to be used.
Two of the defendents involved in the case have been aquitted and two of the seven charges against the five remaining defendants have been dropped. Opening the case against Brooks, John Reeve QC, prosecuting, said vehicles had been used between 1977 and 1984 without being registered and without vehicle excise duty being paid. Dowman Commercial Vehicles and Dowfreight were sister companies, the former being truck dealers selling lorries to the latter.
In 1983 and 1984 the police and the Department of Transport began to notice what was going on. A police officer living in Wantage noticed a Downfreight vehicle parked near his home. He subsequently spotted it parked in the same place with a different registration number which suggested the vehicle was only eight months old. The vehicle's odometer showed a distance of 563,000km, however, which meant it must have done about 80,000km a month.
Dowman Commercial Vehicles was set up in January 1980 as dealers in MAN vehicles. The directors were Brooks and Roger Dowsett, managing director of Dowfreight. Carl Burgess was company secretary of both companies. A large number of vehicles sold to Dowfreight were used on the road without being registered, though numbers had been allocated to them. If August went by before Dowfreight decided to register a vehicle, it had to be allocated a second registration number.
In total, some £35,099 of duty had been lost. Dowman Commercials was prepared to register vehicles even though it was obvious they had been used and some of which had been purchased from a different dealer. The prosecution said that Brooks knew Dowfreight was using vehicles before asking for them to be registered, that he agreed to go along with the scheme, and was prepared to play a part in it.
The trial continues.
0 Dow Freight and Roger Dowsett admitted to two charges of fraudulently allowing false registration marks to be used, two counts of conspiring to offer forged permits and journey sheets and one count of conspiring to use false permits and journey sheets. Car Burgess admitted to two counts of conspiracy relating to false registration marks and one in relation to uttering forged permits and journey sheets.
Philip Vernon admitted to one count of conspiracy relating to false registration marks and one to the use of false permits and journey sheets. Dowman Commercial Vehicles admitted one count of conspiracy relating to false registration marks.
Pleas of not guilty by Leslie Trucking to a charge of fraudulently using a permit belonging to Dowfreight, and by Margaret Vernon two counts of conspiracy relating to the issuing of forged permits and journey sheets and the use of false permits and journey sheets were accepted.