'No proof' plea fails in false hgv licence application case
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• A driver /mechanic who on occasions went out to repair articulated vehicles and later road-tested them, was held not to be in the habit of driving Class I vehicles by the Wakefield City magistrates on October 2. They fined Denis Moffatt, of Harrop Street, Flanshaw Lane, Wakefield, £20 after convicting him on a charge of making a false declaration in order to obtain an hgv licence.
Prosecuting for the Yorkshire LA, Mr M. Patterson said the defendant applied for a Class I licence authorizing him to drive artics and enclosed two certificates of driving experience which enabled the licence to be granted under the transitional provisions without the necessity of a test. The first certificate, from S. W. Holroyd and Sons Ltd, relating to February to May 1969 was not challenged. The second certificate showed that Moffatt had been in the habit of driving Class I vehicles for B. and A. Pacey (Wakefield) Ltd in the period between May 1969 and February 1970. In fact, said Mr Patterson, Pacy did not operate any articulated vehicles until May 1970.
Questioned by Mr G. W. Towel], defending, Mr A. E. Seal, a DoE executive officer, agreed that the two certificates of experience had been signed by the respective employers and not by the defendant.
Mr J. Dixon, a DoE traffic examiner, said that when he interviewed Mr Moffatt he had found the first three months of the qualifying period were in order. Mr Moffatt then joined Pacey and was driving and repairing all of that company's vehicles. He had agreed that Pacey had no artics during this period.
In reply to Mr Towell, Mr Dixon said he had not been told that part of Moffatt's job was to go out and recover vehicles belonging to other firms on behalf of Paceys and to repair and test them.
Mr Towell submitted the defendant had no case to answer. The application form for an hgv licence was in fact three separate forms which had been joined together for convenience. Form DLG I was the only one that was signed by an applicant; DLG la was a medical certificate signed by a doctor; and DLG lb was the certificate of experience signed by the applicant's employers. The prosecution had failed to prove the defendant had signed any declaration that was untrue.
The magistrates ruled there was a case to answer, following a submission by Mr Patterson that the application form was one complete form and that on DLG 1 the defendant had signed a declaration that the details given were true to the best of his knowledge.
Mr F. A. Kilburn, former transport manager of Pacey, said he had signed the certificate in question and he had no wish to retract or alter any part of it. Although the company had no artics of its own at that period it loaned drivers to other hauliers on occasions and also recovered and repaired vehicles for other firms. Both these activities involved articulated vehicles. Questioned by Mr Patterson, Mr Kilburn said that all of that type of work had been carefully recorded and that the safe containing the records had been stolen and was never recovered. He could only now recall two specific occasions when the defendant had gone out to recover an artic, each of which would involve about one hour's driving.
Mr Moffatt claimed that during the relevant period he had also been loaned to Armstrong Cork Ltd for a time. However, it was too far back for him to remember specifically the amount of driving time.
Mr Towell submitted that it was totally unfair to bring a prosecution for making a false statement without proving that it was false but relying upon the cross-examination of witnesses, and their inability to remember, to try to prove a case.
Following the magistrates' decision to convict, Mr Towel]. asked for, and was granted, an adjournment on a similar charge against Mr Royce Moffatt, of Potter Avenue, Lupset, Wakefield. He said that the facts were very similar and the defence wished for the case to come before a different bench of magistrates.
In a third case, involving an employee of Pacey charged with making a false statement, Joseph Illingworth, Station Road, Offett, was given a conditional discharge after the magistrates had found the case proven, though they felt there had been a genuine misunderstanding by the defendant.