Haigh & Wilson is cleared of check-weigh overloading charges
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• Overloading charges against Haigh & Wilson of Halifax, and lorry driver William Shaw have been dismissed by Huddersfield magistrates after the court heard evidence from Shaw that he was on his way to a weighbridge to check-weigh his vehicle.
The prosecution said that the H&W truck, a 16-tonne two-a xled rigid loaded with dog meal, had been stopped and directed to a weight check at Almley Top. An 11.6% rearaxle overload was discovered when it was weighed.
Shaw said that he had loaded at the premises of William Clarke, about three kilometres from Aimley Top, and from those premises it was possible to see vehicles queueing to be weighed at the weighbridge. He had been careful not to overload the front axle because it was a hired vehicle which he was not used to.
Shaw had intended check weighing at the Gildersome dynamic weighbridge, but when he realised that Aimley Top was open he decided to weigh there. He denied that he had been stopped on the road.
Evidence was given by Haigh & Wilson that it issues regular instructions to drivers to check-weigh their vehicles using both the Gildersome and Aimley 'l'op weighbridges. Defending, Gary Hodgson said that the tachograph chart for that day showed that prosecution claims that the vehicles had been stopped on the road were wrong. He argued that the defendants were entitled to the benefit of the statutory defence that the vehicle had been taken to the nearest available weighbridge to checkweigh.