Trading Standards officers have prosecuted drivers and an Oxfordshire company for moving building materials in overloaded lorries.

Mark Murphy, 36, of Don Stuart Place, Cowley, and his business partner Richard Poole, 37, of Comfrey Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, were each fined £215 and ordered to pay £50 costs at Oxford Magistrates Court.

The men, who admitted being in charge of an overloaded vehicle, were prosecuted by Oxfordshire County Council's Trading Standards department after Murphy was pulled over driving a lorry at Ladder Hill, Wheatley, on August 21. The vehicle was found to weigh 5.21 tonnes -- 1.7 tonnes, or nearly 50 per cent more, than its 3.5 tonnes legal weight.

Murphy said the incident had helped the duo, who trade as First Scaffolding, to get to grips with the law.

"We regard this as a severe learning curve," he said in a statement.

In a separate prosecution, Dennis Kelly, 39, of Churchill Place, Wolvercote, was fined £145 and ordered to pay £50 costs after he admitted driving an overweight lorry along Watlington Road.

He was transporting concrete blocks from Garsington Road, Oxford, towards Wheatley.

The vehicle was checked by Trading Standards officers who found it weighed 4.79 tonnes -- 1.29 tonnes or 37 per cent, more than its legal weight of 3.5 tonnes.

His employer Oakbuild (Oxford) Ltd, based in Bicester, was fined £215 and ordered to pay £50 costs. The company offered no plea and the case was proved in absence.

Kelly said he was told to pick up two pallets of bricks and no-one told him the vehicle could be overweight.