On 2008-07-27 01:33:54 +0100, John Rumm said:

Andy Hall wrote:

Could it be that there is a more serious issue here? i.e. insuring
the van for personal use only, yet using it in connection with the
business?

Its a grey area... driving to and from your place of work is not
considered "business mileage" by most insurers.

That is true for employees going to a fixed place of work each day.
They don't get reimbursement on a tax free basis for such mileage
either and this is easy to define.

It becomes complex when said employee drives to the nominal place of
work, then goes to a customer (business) and finally drives home.
There are HMRC rules for it, though.

Coming back to our taffy painter... How does he do his daily
activity? Most likely he goes to the suppliers of paint and wall
paper on his way to the customer or on the way home. I suppose
it's possible that he always goes to the customer, then to the
merchants and back and finally home, in which case the home to work bit
is separable. I think it's a bit unlikely as a way of working
however. Even more unlikely is that he orders all the materials by
phone or internet and has them delivered to site. That would be the
only way to say that the vehicle is used purely for non business
purposes.

As it is now, he has opened himself up to being pursued by his insurers
in regard to the vehicle being used for business with only personal
insurance, and by implication the police by not having valid insurance.

He would have been better off paying the fine and keeping quiet.
Clearly he hasn't thought the matter through before going to the press.
I didn't know that nicotine also creates muddled thinking.