Jones's salt talks fail
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A NORTH Wales haulage firm lost an appeal at Shrewsbury Crown Court last month over an under weight lorry load of salt.
D. H. Jones (Coal and Haulage) of Chirk, near Wrexham, had been fined £100 by Shrewsbury magistrates after being found guilty of applying a false trade description to rock salt. The company appealed against this conviction.
Robin Spencer, for Shropshire County Council's trading standards department, said the corn pany collected a load of rock salt from the ICI works at Winsford, Cheshire, on August 13 last year for delivery to Gwent County Council in South Wales.
The consignment note issued at the ICI weighbridge at Winsford said the gross loaded weight of the lorry was 30,280kg, On August 16 a trading standards inspector checked the lorry at Bromfield, Shropshire, and found its gross weight was 780kg light.
The driver and a director of D. H. Jones had suggested the deficiency could have been due to water loss from the load, which had been left in the company's depot over the weekend.
For D. H. Jones, Road Haulage Association consultant Maurice Vendome said he had examined the ICI weighbridge system at Winsford and had doubts about its accuracy.
Dismissing the appeal, Judge Brian Woods said Mr Vandome's assertions might be right or wrong.
Nevertheless, D. H. Jones Ltd., had not exercised the necessary precaution and diligence required by law.