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Dowse no blame
Page 24
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• Richmond haulage company E Dowse & Son successfully appealed against fines imposed on them by the Wetherby magistrates following guilty pleas to overloading offences for which they were not to blame.
Judge David Saville, sitting at Leeds Crown Court, ruled that it was wrong to impose fines when the defendants were morally blameless.
The firm's three partners, Lewis, Ernest and Hilda Dowse, had each been fined £125 after admitting a 40% rear axle overload and a 19.8% gross overload on a 16tonne gross vehicle.
For the partners, David Hatton said that the vehicle had been carrying a load of laminates. The firm had been dealing with the customer concerned for six years and the loads were standard loads at predetermined weights. There were no previous overloading convictions. The customer had subsequently admitted that an error had been made; 12 pallets had been calculated to weigh 500kg when in fact they weighed 800kg.
Quashing the fines and giving all three partners absolute discharges, Judge Saville said he was satisfied that there was no moral responsibility or negligence on the part of the appellants, who were a reputable firm of hauliers with no previous convictions in 17 years of operation.
For that reason it was in his view quite wrong to impose any fine or other penalty for these offences. Before any penalty could be imposed for such absolute offences there must be some blame-worthiness on the part of the defendants.