et A South Wales motor dealer has been cleared of
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using a vehicle without a tachograph when it was travelling to an auction in order to be sold. Stephen Norman, trading as Crickhowell Commercial Services, had denied the charge before Newport, Gwent magistrates. The magis trates also acquitted the driver, Ian Croach, of a similar offence and ordered the defence costs to be met out of public funds. The court heard that last October a 7.0-tonne refrigerated van was stopped in a check on the A48 at Newport. The driver told traffic examiner Michael Isaac he was not using a tachograph. When subsequently interviewed, Norman had said the vehicle was travelling on trade plates and he did not believe it needed a tachograph as it was on the way to an auction. Defending, Andrew Woolfall pointed out there was an exemption to the tachograph regulations for vehicles with a maximum permissible weight of not more than 7.5 tonnes used for the carriage of material or equipment for the driver's use in the course of his or her work within a 50-kilometre radius of the place where the vehicle was usually based, provided driving the vehicle was not the driver's main activity. He said Croach was mainly employed as a salesman and tor 'WO mechanic. The vehicle was travel ling within 50 km and it was carrying its registration document. This document was needed for the sale of the vehicle so it was material or equipment for the driver's use in his task, argued Woolfall.