• Skipton haulier W & G Taylor and one of
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its drivers were ordered to pay fines and costs totalling 23..3 last week by the Chester magistrates, for a tyre offence, following police allegations that the tyre produced to the court was not the one on the vehicle.
The company and driver Robert Darwin admitted using a semi-trailer on which the inner tyre on the nearside front axle had a portion of the cord exposed. They denied an allegation that the same tyre had insufficient tread depth and the prosecution offered no evidence in respect of that charge. An allegation of insufficient tread depth on a second tyre was withdrawn.
Prosecuting, Julian Harris said that when the tyres of an artic driven by Darwin had been inspected by a police officer last December, he had found that the tyre concerned had an area of 63mm x 19m where the ply had been missing and the cord had been exposed.
Defending, Stephen Kirkbright said that Darwin had not believed that the tyres were illegal, and on returning to base the serial numbers had been noted and the tyres had been removed. When the tyre had been examined by an expert, he had found a piece of tread pattern measuring 25X 19mm missing, exposing the metal cord structure only at the very bottom of the cut. The metal was shiny, which indicated that the cut had occurred only a short time before.
Police constable John Norbury also said the tyre concerned had a 25mm-wide bald strip along the entire circumference of its inner edge.
In reply to Kirkbright, Norbury said he had not seen any cut on a tyre produced to him in May.
Engineer Ivan Ratcliffe agreed that his report was based solely on the tyre produced to him by the company.
The magistrates fined the company 2125, with 248 costs, and Darwin £50, with £10 costs.