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Fielding drivers avoid prison
Page 16
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Drivers for a Cheshire haulage firm with a culture of tacho fiddling have appeared before a crown court
judge for sentencing. Mike Jewell reports.
EIGHT DRIVERS working for Stockport haulier RF Fielding (Cheshire) have received light sentences following their convictions for tacho falsification.
Bolton Crown Court imposed Community Punishment Orders totalling1,600 hours, and ordered them to pay £2,400 costs.
Judge Robert Warnock asked what steps had been taken against the company.Toby Sasse, prosecuting, replied that there was insufficient evidence to proceed against Fielding. But he added that at the very least its management had been negligent about its obligations to ensure legal compliance and to monitor drivers' hours, and it had provided the conditions in which these offences could take place. The motive had been financial gain as the drivers' pay was calculated on their tirnesheets.
Warnock said the company should have been more aware — the levels of driver pay and fuel use should have been clues, he added. The management had closed their minds to what was a very dangerous circumstance.
Sasse said a lot of offences had been committed in a short period; some involved long periods of time and significant unrecorded vehicle movement.
Thirty-two other drivers had been fined by the magistrates.
Warnock commented that it was abundantly clear to him that there was a culture of this sort of conduct at the company. Mark Laprell, appearing for the drivers, said some of them felt they had been put in this position by the company and resented the fact that no action was being taken against it. Driver James Finlay had already left the company before the investigation began because he did not like the way the work was being done.
Most offences had been committed while drivers were waiting in queues at RDCs, he added. It was not a case of driving long distances over the permitted hours.
Since the investigation the company had tightened up its procedures and the drivers had been instructed to run strictly legally.
Sentencing the drivers. Warnock said he did not intend to deprive them of their liberty. The sentences were shortened as they had had to wait three years to know their fate.
However, he stressed that the courts regarded such offences seriously.The y were dishonest,based on greed and frequently caused danger. He accepted that these were not sophisticated offences and the drivers had been employed in a culture where management did nothing positive to discourage illegality.
David Heathcote, of Macclesfield; Albert Mottershead. of Stockport; Robert Lomas,of Cheadle Hulme; Philip Taylor, of Manchester; Kenneth Grimshaw, of Manchester; and Anthony Quinn. of Stockport, were each given a 220-hour Community Punishment Order. James Findlay, of Liverpool was given a 180-hour order and Gary Fields, of Chorley, was given a 100-hour order. They were each ordered to pay f300 costs.
Warnock commended the investigation team.