Huddersfield police ban vehicles from roads with immediate effect after discovering defects

Vehicles with defective brakes, lights, tyres or suspension were taken off the road during a police operation in Huddersfield.
A number of cars were taken off the road immediately after police checks revealed they were defective.A number of cars were taken off the road immediately after police checks revealed they were defective.
A number of cars were taken off the road immediately after police checks revealed they were defective.

The defects on nine of the vehicles were so serious that immediate prohibitions were issued, while seven more were given suspended prohibition.

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West Yorkshire Police said many of the drivers had to arrange a recovery operator to attend at their cost to remove the vehicle to a repair facility, with the prohibitions set to remain in place until repairs were made and a new MOT inspection was passed.

Officers worked alongside DVSA vehicle examiners, HMRC Fuel revenue protection, Kirklees Council taxi licensing and British Transport Police on Thursday's operation.

Random vehicles were selected from the road including commercial vehicles, private hire, hackney carriages and private motor cars.

Documents were checked against police computer systems and the vehicles were checked for roadworthiness.

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Any document offences or vehicle defects resulted in either verbal warnings or fixed penalty notices or reports for summons.

Enforcement action included seizing a vehicle driven without insurance and suspending the licences of two taxi drivers.

PC Steve Nicholls, who led the operation , said: “These operations will be conducted again in the near future at different locations within

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Kirklees to disrupt the criminal use of the road network and bring to justice those persons who do not comply with the requirements of driving a motor vehicle on a public road. The emphasis is to educate people not prosecute them but certain issues are that serious that prosecution is the only option.

“We work closely to many different partner organisations and services on these planned operations as they are the specialists in their particular role and are the ideal organisation to identify the issues.

“If you have any information about others that you know are committing offences on the West Yorkshire’s road network, you can contact the police directly via 101 or through Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”

The results in full

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Sixteen vehicles had serious enough defects that drivers were prohibited from driving on the public roads. These defects related to defects with brakes, lights, tyres and suspension.

Nine vehicles were that serious that immediate prohibitions were issued and the other were suspended prohibition.

One vehicle was seized by police for no insurance.

Five vehicle defect rectification notices issued to vehicles that had defects requiring attention.

Five Traffic offence reports issued to drivers that had defects on vehicles that will be dealt with by fine/points.

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Twelve licensed vehicles were examined by Kirklees council taxi licensing - 10 were found to be roadworthy, two had their taxi licenses suspended. One for not displaying the correct signage, which is a breach of conditions, and the other for a mechanical defect.