Magistrates have handed out thousands of pounds in fines and other penalties to lorry drivers who defied a safety ban and drove across Cawood Bridge.

They heard the approaches to the weak bridge have several warning signs, with at least one three quarters of a mile before the bridge and that it can only be used by vehicles with a gross maximum weight of 7.5 tonnes because its structure is weak.

But six drivers at the wheels of lorries over the weight limit, including one that was more than three times the limit drove across it between February 24 and May 13 this year. The lightest lorry had a maximum gross weight of 12 tonnes.

On May 22, North Yorkshire Council started a 17-week £1 million upgrade of the bridge to strengthen it and enable it to carry vehicles up to 10 tonnes safely. It is the only bridge across the River Ouse between York and Selby.

None of the six drivers attended court in answer to summons, but three pleaded guilty by letter. Three others, Sean Jobling, Anthony Peter Hoolin and Adam Cooke were convicted in their absence.

Altogether the six drivers were ordered to pay £4562.50, of which £3,370 was fines, £336 was statutory surcharges and £856.50 was prosecution costs.

Jobling, 28, of Danube Road, Hull, who drove a lorry with a maximum gross weight of 26 tonnes from Hull to Selby, was fined the maximum of £1,000.

He told North Yorkshire trading standards officers his sat nav had directed him over the bridge.

All defendants were ordered to pay £142.75 costs and a statutory surcharge of a tenth of their fine.

Andrew John Boreham, 55, of Tannery Court, Knaresborough, who drove an 18-tonne lorry from Knaresborough to Wistow and was fined £665, and Andrew David Cunningham, 55, of Overthorpe Avenue, Thornhill, Dewsbury, who drove a 18-tonne lorry from Beverley to Sherburn-in-Elmet and was fined £350, told officers their sat nav directed them over the bridge.

Cooke, 24, of Moorfield Crescent, Hemsworth, Pontefract, who drove a 14-tonne lorry from York to Selby and was fined £475, told officers he didn’t see the warning signs until it was too late.

Anthony Peter Hoolin, 50, of St James Grove, Pool Stock, Wigan, who drove a 12-tonne lorry from Hemingbrough to Cawood and was fined £440, told officers he thought the weight limit applied to the lorry as loaded and not to its gross maximum weight.