CONVICTION QUASHED
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LORD PARKER, the Lord Chief . Justice, said in the Queen's Bench Divisional Court last week that he had very great doubts whether a vehicle going to collect goods for hire and reward, or returning after delivery, could be said to be being used on the road for the carriage of goods within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act, 1960.
"My first reaction is that the section means what it says: that use for carriage means that the vehicle must be used at the time on the road in question actually for carrying the goods, and that the section does not cover a lorry returning after carriage or going to a place for carriage." observed Lord Parker.
The court allowed, with costs, an appeal by Mr. John Roberts. haulage con tractor, of Ffestiniog, Merioneth. Mr. Roberts had been fined £5 and ordered to pay 10s. costs by Denbigh County Justices at Llanwrst on,February 24 on a summons alleging that he used a goods vehicle without a 'carrier'S A licence.
Lord Parker, who sat with. Mr. Justice Ashworth and Mr. Justice Milmo, said a police constable, deduced that a load of timber had been recently carried on the vehicle. The point of construction of the section did not arise directly in the case, which the court decided in favour of Mr. Roberts, on the ground that there was no direct evidence against him that the vehicle was being used for hire and reward. The court remitted the case to the Justices with a direction that the conviction must be quashed.