Huge fines for tacho cheating
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r A Chesterfield truck driver and his employer have been fined £18,960 for a series of tachograph offences.
When he appeared before magistrates in Leigh, Lancs, driver Paul Wright pleaded guilty to using a vehicle when the tachograph seal was broken; to 26 offences of falsifying tachograph records; and to 30 offences of taking insufficient daily and weekly rest. He was fined £9,850 with £55 costs.
His employer, Chesterfield haulier Ian Ashmore, pleaded guilty to one offence of using a vehicle with a broken tachograph seal and to 30 offences of permitting Wright to take insufficient rest. He was fined £9,000 with £55 costs. The men were given 28 days to pay due to the size of the fines.
Prosecuting, Alan Bakker said that PC Graham Robinson of Greater Manchester Police stopped Wright's Scania artic on the East Lancashire Road on 6 October. He found the cable from the gear box to the tachograph head was not sealed.
An examination of Wright's charts showed that many of them were in the name of Patrick Dawson, one of which referred to a journey the previous night from Sandbach to York. Wright maintained that Dawson was another driver who had driven the vehicle and said he had travelled to York in the firm's van.
An examination of Wright's tachograph charts for July, August and September revealed numerous offences.
When interviewed Wright admitted entering false names an his tachograph charts and driving while using false names in an attempt to conceal the hours offences.
Ashmore said the offences had arisen because he had had personal problems and had neglected his business.