Missing marker lamps: police win appeal
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• A police appeal against the dismissal by Felixstowe magistrates of a summons alleging that a transport company caused an articulated lorry to be on the road during darkness without displaying side marker lamps was allowed by three High Court judges last Friday.
Mr Peter Bowsher, for J. W. H. Spicer and Sons Ltd, told the Queen's Bench Divisional court that the company did not seek to uphold the magistrates' decision, given on February 22 1971.
Mr Justice Ashworth, sitting with Mr Justice Me!ford Stevenson and Mr Justice Bristow, said the court was indebted to the company's candour.
The case was sent back for the magistrates to convict the company.
The judge said it was common ground that there were no side marker lamps on the 40ft-long Dutch-built trailer when it was being towed along a road in East Suffolk. The only issue was whether the trailer was exempt from the regulations because, as the magistrates decided, it had been brought temporarily into the United Kingdom by a person resident outside the UK.
There was no evidence to support that finding, said the judge. Indeed the inference was that it had been brought into the country by Ferrymasters Ltd, a company incorporated in Britain.