Funeral carriage requires HGV licence
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.
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