My builder just told me that yesterday the Police were pulling over vans to check for defects.

They pulled him over and after an exhaustive examination discovered a small cut in one of his tyres.

He didn't have the tyre jack on the van as he'd used it to help another mate out a couple of days earlier.

The Police refused to allow him to drive it the 500 yards to a garage to get the wheel changed. He also had to replace the tyre before their shift finished at 1pm or the van would be marked as defective and towed away to be crushed.

He called a mate out who runs a tyre fitting service from his van. When his mate turned up to change his tyre, he was pulled over, his van inspected and impounded for defects.

He was, however, allowed to change my builders tyre, so my builder drove away after loosing half a days paid work.

I can't verify this is true, but I trust my builder, we have a good working relationship and I doubt he would lie about something like this.