P LEGAL BRIEF
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Overload costs £2,230
AN OVERLOADED vehicle has cost Manchester-based Country Wide Freight Group, trading as Cooper Carriers, £2,230 in fines and costs.
The firm admitted exceeding the gross weight of a light goods vehicle before the Wrexham magistrates.
The court was told that a 3.5-tonne vehicle belonging to the company was stopped in a check on the A494 at Ewloe in September while driving from Deeside to the Newton area. The maximum permitted gross weight was found to be exceeded by 1.340kg (38.29%). The permitted first axle weight of 1.650kg was exceeded by 550kg (33.33%). and the second axle weight of 2.290kg by 390kg (17.33%). The driver, Christopher Rowlands, said the vehicle had not been weighed en route or at base and he did not know where the nearest public weighbridge was.
When interviewed, the tirm's regional director Alan Willis had said it relied on the driver's experience.
The magistrates fined the firm 12,000 with £230 costs.