A lorry adapted for
carrying two black horses and a gold-trimmed funeral carriage around
the country does require an HGV operator's licence, according to the
High Court.
The issue had been causing some legal confusion, but two senior judges made the law dead certain.
North
Avon magistrates had cleared carriage owner John Clayton, of Headlands
Farm, Gayton, Northamptonshire, of committing an offence by not obtaining a licence.
The magistrates
concluded that the lorry did not need one and was exempt under HGV
regulations because it was being "used for funerals".
But Lord
Justice Sullivan and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting at London's High
Court, said in a decision revealed today that the magistrates had given
too wide an interpretation to the rules.
Mr Clayton had been
heading to a funeral in Bristol when stopped on the A46, near
Tormarton, South Gloucestershire, in October 2008.
The Vehicle
Operator Services Agency (Vosa) appealed to the High Court against the
magistrates' decision to acquit, made in February last year.
Vosa
lawyers argued that, although the horse-drawn carriage was "used for
funerals", the lorry carrying the carriage to funerals was not and
could not therefore be exempt.
The High Court judges agreed, but
decided to take no further action against Mr Clayton, whose case had
been used to clarify the law.
Mr Clayton said he had received conflicting advice over the years about whether or not he needed an operator's licence.
Source: Northampton Chronicle
