Steele gets duty fine
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/Using a vehicle when the wrong rate of vehicle excise duty had been paid has cost Ray Steele Haulage of Barrow £1,192.51 in fines, costs and back duty. Appearing before the Kendal Magistrates the company denied the charge. But evidence was given by the police that they had stopped a Mercedes tri-axled tractor hauling a loaded tandem-axled trailer, which was taxed at the lower six-axle rate.
Defending, Jonathan Lawton said that the relevant section of the 1971 Vehicles Excise Act was extremely difficult to understand — he argued that an offence was only created when the vehicle was solely used in a changed condition and use on one occasion did not take the
vehicle outside the provisions of the section.
A single incident could not amount to evidence of sole use, even when the vehicle was being used in a changed condition or manner. It was the tractor unit that was taxed and there was no evidence to suggest that it had been changed.
The company had gone to extreme lengths to ensure that the train weight of the artic did not exceed 28 tonnes, said Lawton. At that weight it would have attracted less tax than had been paid and use of the vehicle would have been totally lawful. Consequently, there had been no loss to the Revenue, no commercial advantage to the company, and no danger had been created. The magistrates fined the company £750 with £372.51 back duty and £70 costs.