Wrangle over truck's owner
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by Miles Brignall • A Kent owner-driver acquitted of drug smuggling charges has been prevented from getting his truck back by a row over who owns the vehicle.
Clive Brown, who was freed from prison after being found innocent at Canterbury Crown Court last November, couldn't understand why his requests for the return of his Daf tractor unit were being ignored.
Brown was hauling a load of tyres for Les Edwards of Newingtonbased Les Edwards Transport when he was stopped at Dover. The drugs were found in a holdall tied to the bellytank of the trailer he was pulling.
At the time of the trial Brown told the court that the tractor belonged to him. When CM contacted Customs a spokesman said that Edwards had lodged a claim for the unit.
But Edwards hotly disputes this claim. "At no stage have I told Customs that the tractive unit belongs to me," he says. "Before the trial I sent the unit's logbook off to Brown's solicitor and as far as I'm concerned that is the end of it."
Customs says it cannot release the unit to the wrong person but stresses it will gladly hand it over it to whoever holds the registration document. "In fact we are quite keen to get rid of it," says a spokesman.