Breakdown vehicle was exempt
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• Audenshaw, Manchester-based Thomas Platt, trading as R&P Commercials, was cleared of using a vehicle when the tachograph was not used correctly after Barnsley magistrates accepted the vehicle concerned was a specialist breakdown vehicle and thus exempt. Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Stewart Layle said the articulated outfit he checked was carrying two tractive units for repair. He argued that the outfit was a vehicle carrier and in effect no different from a car transporter. Platt said the vehicle had been adapted for use as a breakdown vehicle. Defending, Ian Whalley said in the case of Hamilton vs Whitelock the European Court had defined a specialised breakdown vehicle as one whose construction, fittings, or other permanent characteristics were such that it would be used mainly for removing broken-down vehicles. The purpose to which the vehicle was being put at that particular time was irrelevant.