Disc misuse penalties
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• DD Transport and its managing director David Mobberley have been ordered to pay £700 in fines and costs for offences relating to the misuse of an Operators Licence identity disc and overloading.
The Cannock, Staffordshirebased company pleaded guilty to four offences of the unauthorised use of a vehicle and one charge of overloading. Mobberley denied aiding and abetting the unauthorised use of a vehicle and allowing the company to use a licence identity disc with intent to deceive, but was convicted by Cannock magistrates.
Michael McKnight, prosecuting said the matters came to light when a vehicle was stopped and found to be overloaded. The vehicle's identity disc was in the name of RD Mobberley & Sons. Traffic examiner David Dunham visited the company and found that the vehicle was actually being operated by DD Transport.
Mobberley said his father Robert Mobberley had gone bankrupt and DD Transport had been formed.
Admitting that DD Transport was not the holder of an Operators Licence, Mobberley said he knew it was wrong but he thought there might have been objections due to his father's bankruptcy. He thought it was all right to use his father's disc. He had done it so that if the vehicle was stopped there would be an Operator's Licence in the window.
Defending, Christopher Lee said up until September 1990 Mobberley had been employed by his father as a driver. The business went into liquidation and DD Transport began operations. There had never been an Operator's Licence for it and Mobberley got it into his head that he could use his father's licence as it had not expired.
Lee argued that there should not be two separate penalties as Mobberley and DD Transport Ltd were really the same entity. DD Transport was no longer in operation and Mobberley was now working for his mother's haulage business. The company was fined £300 and Mobberley £200. They were each ordered to pay £50 prosecution costs.