Limiter fine is last coffin nail
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• A Birmingham haulier whose warehouses were twice burned down and whose five trucks were vandalised has accused magistrates of "driving the final nail in the coffin" for imposing £1,750 in fines for speed limiter offences.
Cohn Whitehead, managing director of Blades of Streetly, told magistrates that he had lost £250,000 and made four workers redundant and that he could not afford the fine. On behalf of the company Whitehead had admitted seven charges of not maintaining a speed limiter.
"I have experienced the worst 12 months in my 25 years as a haulage operator," he said. "After the vandals my insurance firm is refusingto insure my trucks."
Whitehead added that the administration at the company had been disrupted by a series of setbacks. As a result tachographs had been checked only at the end of each month—otherwise, he said, the faults would have been corrected earlier.
Told that he would have to pay £1,750 in fines, Whitehead said: "I cannot pay—I have not got the money. You have driven the final nail in my coffin."