A GOOD Samaritan and a skip hire worker are counting the cost today after overloading their vehicles.Brian Kennell and Robert Brown were the latest to be landed a court fine after Suffolk County Council launched a crackdown on vehicles exceeding their weight limit.

A GOOD Samaritan and a skip hire worker are counting the cost today after overloading their vehicles.

Brian Kennell and Robert Brown were the latest to be landed a court fine after Suffolk County Council launched a crackdown on vehicles exceeding their weight limit.

Both pleaded guilty by post and were fined in their absence after a short hearing at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court on Monday.

In a letter read by the court clerk magistrates heard Essex man Kennell, 46, of Downs Road, Maldon, had elected to drive a lorry load of timber to spare a charity the cost.

Officials stopped him at Great Blakenham where the load was found to have exceeded the 3,500 kg weight limit by 620 kg.

The letter, written by a charity representative, revealed Kennell was not a lorry driver but a skilled craftsman in the restoration of timber vessels and hired the lorry to save cash.

It explained Kennell did not realise how much weight had been put on the vehicle. Kennell was described as a "genuine, good and honest person" and "totally trustworthy."

Magistrates fined him £50 and ordered him to pay £50 towards prosecution costs. The name of the charity was not revealed in court.

Robert Brown, 35, of Lancaster Way, Claydon, was also stopped in Great Blakenham.

The vehicle he was driving was found to be 2,160 kg over the 17,000 weight limit – exceeding the limit by almost 13 per cent.

In a letter to the court Brown revealed the load was well bellow the skip's full capacity.

Mr Brown, who held an exemplary driving record for 18 years, wrote the skip was filled over an unusually long period of time during adverse weather conditions and the load had become saturated.

Magistrates fined him £250 and ordered him to pay £150 costs.