Rig attracts attention by Rob Willock • A Suffolk nurseryman
Page 12
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and haulier claims he is being victimised after being stopped for the fifth time in recent months by police mistaking him for a "new age traveller".
Robin Milton, of Mickfield Hostas, carries his produce to flower shows in a D-reg Leyland 7.5-tonner and tows a caravan, which he uses for accommodation during the shows.
But, he complains, the combination of lorry and caravan singles him out for unfair attention from the police. In the latest incident, Milton was driving home along the M2 when two Kent traffic policemen pulled him over and argued that his driving licence did not permit him to tow a trailer.
"But it's not a trailer, it's a furnished caravan weigh ing less than 750kg," complains Milton. This combination can be driven on a car licence.
The police refused to let him drive on, so Milton had to bring out an agency driver "at great expense" to take his vehicle home. "But when I presented myself at my local cop shop, they said I'd been driving perfectly legally—so where's the consistency?" he asks.
"I'm a two-vehicle haulier who really tries to be legal, and I'm sick of being pulled over, especially when I compare my lorry to some of the wrecks I see at the showgrounds."
Milton is now respraying and signwriting his lorry in the hope it will deflect police attention.
A Bridlington car deliverer who uses a 4x4 to move cars on the back of a trailer is to be charged with not using a tachograph by Leicester police. He wants other readers to contact him if they have had similar experiences. (See letters page 27.)