Court pays Mayers
Page 15
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• West Yorkshire Trading Standards Department has been ordered to pay defence costs of £600 within 28 days after an overloading charge against a North Wales lorry driver was dismissed by the Leeds Stipendary Magistrate, David Loy (CM, January 31).
Alan Mayers, of Ruthin, denied exceeding the permitted gross weight of an articulated outfit in what was regarded as a test case involving the accuracy of the method used to weigh artics on the plate weighbridge at the Seacroft
Refuse Transfer Station.
Evidence was given that the weighbridge was on a slope and that the tractor unit was weighed with the trailer either up the hill or down the hill.
Defending, Gary Hodgson said there was conflicting evidence about which direction the vehicle had been weighed in, but if the driver's evidence was accepted, then all the experts agreed it would be an inaccurate weigh. The prosecution conceded that there was some inaccuracy but failed to identify the degree of inaccuracy. There were tremendous fluctuations in the figures of the test weighings produced.
Dismissing the charge. Loy said the variable results obtained when vehicles were weighed in different positions raised doubts as to the accuracy of the weighbridge.
Following his decision, a number of overloading charges against other drivers and hauliers whose vehicles were checked at Seacroft in March and August, were withdrawn by the prosecution.