x2! Especially if it's like a 'first offence' type deal.

 

Its called tax evasion Dunno if theres any way around that......

 

Maybe you will get a position on the Presidents cabinet. Sucks were tehy going to impound the truck or just bring it back the next day. I would have told him I would bring it bak the next day, and dropped the tank, flushed the lines new filter, and buy a bottle of Mravels mystery oil, then when they tested it if it came out red you could have just said it was because of the fuel additive.

 

he gave me the option of having him sample it there on the highway or having me bring the truck back to the police department the next morning for them to sample it under court order...i thought he didnt know anything about diesels but i was wrong once he drained my fuel filter

 

oh dude, that is bad news! that fine seems beyond ridiculous too! DEFINITELY "lawyer up" for this!

 

you pay to play and when you try to beat the system you usually lose, I hate for anyone to have to be an example but if everyone obeyed the rules the rules wouldn't exist no matter how unfair or biased this may seem it's probably not going to end up any different irregardless of whether you have a lawyer or not

 

Welcome to Missouri my friend. You may think $18,000 is high but you didnt go to jail. Several years back there was a construction company operating down at the Lake of the Ozarks. The company had something like 18 dump trucks and a handfull of diesel pickups. One of the dump trucks was pulled over and the tank was dipped .. red fuel. The state got warrents and dipped every truck owned by the company .. every single one had red fuel. I cant tell you what the fines added up to but the company was forced to close and the owner went to prison on tax evasion charges. States dont mess around when it comes to cheating them out of fuel taxes. I want to say Missouri offers a $50,000 reward for information on commercial vehicles running red fuel. It is also bad with diesel pickup because I have personally seen them dip fuel tanks at livestock sales, machinery auctions, and the state fair. It just isnt smart to run red fuel. My roommate out here in Indiana .. his dad works for a feed mill and fills his truck with red diesel from the bulk tanks .. I think its the dumbest thing I've seen the guy do. He defends himself saying that he has never been pulled over .. as you now know, all it takes is one dot cop to dip your tank and the game is over. I hope you can work something out with the state. Oh, and be glad you werent overloaded too. I was installing some gps equipment at a grain elevator in Mexico, Mo one day when a ford 550 pulled in with roofing materials on a trailer .. about 30 seconds later a dot cop walked in the front door and asked to use the scale. The guy had 24,000 lbs plates on the ford and scaled at 36,000 lbs. In Missouri you get a warning for the first 1000 lbs and then fined $1 per lbs for anything over the first 1000 ... thats an $11,000 fine for being overweight .. lucky for the ford he wasnt running red fuel and the cop was in a good mood .. walked away with a $1000 ticket and the cop let him go down the road without unloading the extra weight. Moral of the stories ... dont break the law, its only a matter of time before they catch you. Again, good luck with the ticket.

 

18K that is just crazy. I know a few people that got caught in SD and they got a $100 ticket. I would go talk to a lawyer about the fine mabey they can find a loop hole to get the fine reduced.

Your biggest problum is the IRS is involved in this.

I don't run dyed diesel in my truck I figure a 3500 dually with 22.5's and pulling what I am pulling is bound to be checked. So far I havent got 2 warnings for speeding but never got dipped. But if asked I won't let them check without a warrant

 

A fine is appropriate. However, these amounts are WAY out of line with the offense. I'm no legal expert, but I would think this fits the definition of "cruel and unusual".

A reasonable fine in my book would be something like 10x the tax due on the fuel.

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

 

WOW. That sucks big time.