Harriet Gilchrist secures very minor fine for multi-million-pound company charged with overloading a goods vehicle

12/11/2025

On 19 March 2025 on the M25, Leatherhead, the DVSA stopped a 3.5 tonne goods vehicle transporting bags of cement and timber from Dartford to Leatherhead. The vehicle had a maximum gross permitted weight of 3,500 kilograms. The vehicle was weighed and found to be overloaded, with the maximum permitted weight exceeded by 1,600 kilograms –  equal to 45.71%.

The driver of the vehicle (who was contracted to the company through a driving agency) and the company were charged with using a vehicle which exceeded the permitted weight contrary to Regulation 80(1)(a) of the Road Vehicles (Construction and use) Regulations 1986 and Section 41B of the Road Traffic Act 1988. This is an offence of strict liability with an unlimited (level 5) fine upon conviction.

Following the incident the company undertook an internal investigation into the incident and broadcast an Internal Safety Alert and put in place further refresher training for non-employee drivers in relation to safe loading.

The Sentencing Guidelines for a company note the starting point as 150% of relevant weekly income with a range of 125% to 175%. There is then an additional 10% uplift for each addition 1% of overload after the first 10%. The transport infrastructure construction company had a weekly turnover that was in excess of £5million.

At the hearing Harriet advanced extensive mitigation, highlighting:

• the company’s good character;
• the extensive training provided to employed and agency staff;
• the steps taken by the company to prevent the driver leaving in the vehicle; and
• the processes and procedures in place to ensure compliance with the law.

The Sentencing Guidelines, in relation to companies make it clear that, “when sentencing organisations the fine must be sufficiently substantial to have a real economic impact which will bring home to both management and shareholders the need to comply with the law.” Harriet argued that, in this case, a substantial fine would not serve the intended purpose under the guidelines, as the need to comply with the law was understood by the company and demonstrated by the points raised in mitigation.

The Magistrates’ imposed a very modest fine of £3,000, stating they had taken account of the legal cases relied upon and the considerable mitigation advanced, as such it was appropriate to mark this incident with a minor financial penalty.  

This is a noteworthy outcome given the recent high-profile fines given to haulage companies for operating overweight vehicles.

Harriet was instructed by Ryan Gledhill of Osborn Abas Hunt.