Of course the police didn't use their simple fixed penalty scheme - at 77/90% overloading it needs far more than a fixed penalty - to keep within forum rules, I can't express how irresponsible you've been.

A quick search found this:

startups.co.uk/analysis/penalties-for-overloaded-v.../

I see so many vans driven about obviously heavily overloaded and increasing numbers of them being pulled in by the VOSA vehicles.

That must have been a load intended for a 7.5 tonner and not for a van, whatever profiteering was involved here will be undone in short order in court, plus your reg no and name and address will likely appear on the VOSA database, so expect to be pulled over for weighing and inspections in the future.

If you wanted to get an operators licence in the future to be able to use larger vehicles, this will go against your good repute.

For the future i suggest you weigh your vehicle and the axles individually when you have a near enough full legal evenly spread load on board, then on a flat road measure the height between tops of tyres and bodywork and keep a note of it, on vehicles with steel springs this isn't a bad guide but keep in mind the design of your vehicle, if you deliver multi drop from the rear soon as you take something off the load area behind the rear axle some weight will transfer to the front axle, this is a particular issue with Luton vans.

Edited by gordonbennet on 01/02/2023 at 13:16

Sooner or before the message finally registers they'll be sharing a cell with big Mike,

Which of course would be a possibility if the offence carried a custodial sentence. But no matter how serious an occurrence is or how many times the offence is committed, it doesn't.

How do they stop persistent offenders, there must be some ultimate sanction of stopping people who won't be responsible.

The only sanctions the courts have is either:

• penalty points: 3 is the maximum for these particular offences and where 2 or more offences are committed at the same time - as in this case - points are only imposed for one, or
• immediate disqualification for a single offence. This is most unlikely until a number of a similar nature have been recorded and even then not guaranteed.

Of course an offender racking up twelve points within three years faces a "totting up" ban of six months, but, apart from an income-related fine, that's it.

There are very few motoring offences which attract custody. Off the top of my head I can think of:

• Causing death by dangerous or careless driving
• Dangerous driving
• Most alcohol and drug related offences
• Driving whilst disqualified
• Failing to stop/report an accident.

There may be others but I can't immediately think of any. The rest attract fines only, plus, for many, the points/disqualification options similar to above.

A slight amendment to my earlier answer. This offence attracts a mandatory disqualification if a second offence is committed within three years.

We may not hear any more from the OP on here but he has been posting his problem all over the place (and receiving largely the same answers).