Discharged on overload
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• Kennedy Construction Group was given an absolute discharge for an overloading offence after St Helens magistrates heard the company took a very strict line over overloading. The company pleaded guilty to exceeding the permitted gross weight of a 7.5-tonne flatbed by 35.8%.
Defending, Andrew Woolfall said the company operated more than 700 vehicles and all its drivers had been trained in loading. There was a written policy and every driver had a copy. The driver of the vehicle concerned had loaded the vehicle himself and had accepted at a previous court hearing that he had been responsible. He had been given a final warning.
Maintaining the company could not have done more to avoid the commission of such offences, Woolfall said the High Court had laid down that an absolute discharge was appropriate where defendants were morally blameless and had not been negligent. The magistrates ordered the company to pay 282 costs.