posted August 05, 2006 23:12               

I wonder if anyone knows the full story behind the 3 tractor dealers who got done for the sum of £250 each at a recent agricultural show in Lincolnshire. I only caught the tale end of the story yesterday, apparently the tanks were dipped on 3 tractors which were found to have red diesel and had been driven to the show.

For some reason only these three dealers were targeted and from what was said the young farmers stand were very fortunate because they had tractors and could have been done for the very same thing.

It looks as though what's been a talking point for some time now has finally happened.

Sorry that I don't have the full story but hoping someone else may be able to expand on this.

Regards,

posted August 06, 2006 00:04               

Found this article from the Lincolnshire Echo:-

Every year people who use red diesel illegally cost the Government £600m in unpaid fuel duty.

That is money that might otherwise be spent on schools, the NHS or the country's road network.

Customs officers believe unauthorised use of the fuel is a growing problem.

And that is why crackdowns like the one at Lincolnshire's Showground yesterday will become more and more common.

Yesterday officers carried out spot checks on 68 traders as they entered Gate 5 of the showground.

They found that red diesel had been illegally used in four cases.

Fines of £250 were issued to two drivers and two people were issued with warnings.

Red diesel - which can be used legally in off-road vehicles but only in agricultural vehicles on the road - is popular because it costs about half the price of regular diesel.

One man, who had brought in a digger to exhibit on the back of a trailer from Grantham, was fined £250 for illegally using red diesel.

"No-one seems to know what we can do and where we can run on red diesel or white," he said.

"It's illegal now I'm on the road but I could go back home and swap the fuel and it would be legal again."

Regards,

posted August 06, 2006 02:57               

Regards,

posted August 06, 2006 09:58               

The new regulations are designed to clear up areas of mis-use but have completely confused issues as usual.

Basically red diesel can be used in agriculture, on the land, and construction work, on site.

If your vehicle is registered as "historic vehicle" it should be using white or road diesel. So all vintage ploughing matches etc. should be carried out using white diesel.

However, this is where confusion starts. Customs and Excise are not prepared to allow vehicles to use white diesel for some activities and red diesel for others in the same tractor.

So you cannot go to a ploughing match using white diesel and take the same tractor into normal agricultural work on red. The tractor must be specific to the job.

This means that, say, during harvest, a tractor tows the combine cutterbar to the field. This is a transport job.

The tractor must then be used in that field for some agricultural purpose otherwise it is classed as a "transport tractor" and should be solely operated on white diesel.

What it boils down to is if you are using a tractor to transport your goods, say, carting the produce from field to store, and that is all that tractor does, it should be run on white diesel. If it does some field work like ploughing or cultivating it can be run on red diesel but its mileage is then restricted to an area 15 miles from the home base.

This is going to hit the veg growers in my area who grow spuds on land all over the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and who cart in to a pack house in Ely with Fasttracs and others with 40kph boxes.

The fines that were issued in Lincolnshire were small. Customs have the ability to confiscate your tractor/vehicle and charge for lost revenue based on the mileage of the vehicle, if it is found to be using red diesel.

Those of us with petrol/paraffin tractors could also be in trouble.

When Henrietta was registered as an "historic vehicle", I sent away the old log book with all the details. In it, it states that she is "petrol/paraffin".

The new logbook states she is "petrol". So what happens when her tank is dipped as it could be? If I am running on anything but petrol am I in trouble?

Petrol/paraffin is no longer recognised as a fuel so you are alright if you transport your tractor to events on a lorry but if you drive it by road or on a road run on the public highway what then?

posted August 06, 2006 23:15               

jomoon568 has come across the HM Revenue and Customs website which says that to conform with the 1.5km distance of travel the agricultural vehicle has to be registered as a limited use vehicle. Cut and paste the following to look at the website:-
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageExcise_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000164&propertyType=document#P55_4381

Regards,