Wrong charge made so firm is acquitted
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CIVIL engineers P. Lowery and Sons Ltd, of Southall Lane, Heston, won their High Court appeal last week against conviction of permitting a tipper lorry to be used with an insecure load.
The lorry left a trail of wet sand which was an inconvenience if not a danger to following and overtaking vehicles on the elevated section of M4 at Chiswick, said Lord Widgery (Lord Chief Justice).
Magistrates sitting at Acton last September fined the company £25, but the Queen's Bench Divisional Court ordered the fine to be remitted and the conviction quashed. Lord Widgery, sitting with Mr Justice Ashworth and Mr Justic Bristow, said he subscribed to the commonsense approach adopted by the magistrates.
They decided that as the company was responsible for the presence of the lorry on the road it was guilty of the offences as charged. But that was not so.
Had the company been accused of using the vehicle with an insecure load, it would have been guilty.
However, "through some innocent error" the company was charged with permitting the tipper to be used in that condition, and that offence required proof that someone in authority knew the vehicle was being used with a defect.
"Someone said to be the brains of the company has to authorize the use of a defective vehicle," the judge said.
In this case the only evidence before the magistrates was that the tipper had been sent out "by some employee of the company".
That was not enough to show that the company knew the offence was being committed, so there was no alternative but to acquit.
The court ordered the company's costs to be paid out of public funds.