Allen wins defence costs
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• A Lancashire haulier won defence costs last week when Stafford Magistrates accepted that a tractive unit towing a disabled semi-trailer was being lawfully used under trade plates.
William Allen (Bolton) and director William Allen denied misusing his trade plates, using a vehicle without an excise licence and failing to use a tachograph.
The court was told that Allen was driving his artic north on the M6 last april when it was stopped by the police. Allen had claimed that the tractive unit was a recovery vehicle. It was agreed that a wheel assembly was missing from the leading axle of the unladen semi-trailer, and that the axle had been roped to hold it in position.
The prosecution argued that the vehicle was not a recovery vehicle because it was a simple artic combination, and that recovery vehicles should be equipped with apparatus to raise a disabled vehicle wholly or partly from the ground.
In Allen's defence Jonathan Lawton said there was no doubt that the trailer was a disabled vehicle, and anyone looking at the combination would take the commonsense view that it was on recovery work when stopped.
He argued that though it probably never had been the intention of the legislation, a tractive unit could be defined as a recovery vehicle because it had the necessary apparatus to raise a vehicle wholly or partially from the ground — namely the fifth wheel. By its very nature, a semi-trailer could not move anywhere unless the front was raised clear of the ground.