Graham Hill, Car Finance Expert, Reveals Change In Law Relating To Business Cars

Friday, 26. March 2010

It’s bad enough trying to run a small business during a recession whilst at the same time ensuring that you don’t accidentally breach employment, health and safety, consumer etc. laws that could land you in all sorts of trouble. In the current climate its not unusual for small businesses to come to an arrangement with employees to use their own cars, rather than go to the expense of providing a company car, for occasional business use. But of course by doing that, a ton of red tape lands on the shoulders of the employer, even if the trips are only to pick up some stationary or drop post off at the end of the day. Without going into all the requirements the car and the employee both have to be road legal, if not new sentencing guidelines might be worth a few minutes of quiet consideration. If, under the new regime, a work related death leads to a prosecution for breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Sentencing Guidline Council says the fine will be ‘seldom less than £100,000 and may be measured in hundreds of thousands of pounds more.’ And if the company is convicted of Corporate Manslaughter it added that the fine will be ‘seldom less than £500,000 and may be measured in millions of pounds.’ Up until now it has been difficult to put a price on getting it wrong when it comes to road risk, according to legal experts. At the bottom end of the spectrum it would cost a company £20,000 for a minor breach of health and safety law. The first trial to take place under this legislation and believed to be the reason why the guidelines were issued, was due to start in Bristol Crown Court on the 23^rd February against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings and director Peter Eaton as a result of the death of an employee Alex Wright. However, as a result of the poor health of Peter Eaton the judge has put back the trial till at least October 2010. As has been pointed out by legal experts these new fines should act as a wake up call, any company that has employees driving on company business, whether their own car or a company car should take every precaution to protect themselves and their employees or face huge fines and possible imprisonment. By Graham Hill