Weight ticket reprieve
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• Grimsby magistrates have thrown out charges alleging that a vehicle belonging to C & C Transport, of Scunthorpe had exceeded its permitted train weight by more than two tonnes.
And the magistrates have also directed that the defence costs of partners Anita and Michael Crawshaw and driver James Love should be paid out of public funds.
Prosecuting for Humberside Trading Standards Department, Susan Hardy said that a check on weight tickets at the KP Foods' weighbridge showed that a 38-tonner driven by Love last October had a train weight of 40.33 tonnes.
Evidence was produced that Love had driven a vehicle carrying potatoes on the day in question, and that the weighbridge had been tested for accuracy in September. However, KP Foods indicated that it was not possible to say who had weighed the vehicle.
Defending, Jonathan Lawton pointed out that the weight ticket did not identify either the driver or the firm, and there were different names on the weight ticket. He said that al though the registration number of the vehicle was recorded, there was no opportunity of querying which entries were the accurate ones with whoever had weighed the vehicle.
The certificate of weight was not sufficient evidence on its own, and there was no evidence that the weighbridge had been regularly tested at intervals of not more than six months.