Romac drivers fined over hours
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• Six Romac drivers have pleaded guilty at Dover magistrates court to falsifying their tachograph charts.
The drivers, all based at Sandwich, Kent, are Michael Edward King of Arlington Gardens, Margate; Christopher John Pullen of Canute Road, Deal; Brian Thomas Stow of Newman Road, Aylesham; Barry Stephen Swann of Hoarden, Ash; Andrew Norman Webb of Hawthorne Close, Ramsgate; and Ernest Edward Williams of Hill Crescent, Aylesham. In court last week they were each fined up to £995.
Prosecutor Christopher Mayo said that the drivers used a number of techniques to falsify the records, including disconnecting the tachograph, using false names and turning back their clocks.
Richard Pitt, defending, said: "The men were not aware of the requirements under the hours law. Most knew that 41/2 hours marked a limit, but did not grasp its significance".
Transport consultant Colin Ward, called by the defence, said he had spoken to the men and had found "massive ignorance" of the regulations and their complexities. He said most of the errors were "ridiculous", with wrong names and no dates. Some drivers had opened up their tachographs simply to check the time.
Ward said that since his first visit to Romac, he and his colleagues had trained the drivers and their employers in the use of tachographs.
The magistrates fined each driver £120 per offence and ordered them each to pay £35 towards prosecution costs, With costs, King will pay £995, Pullen £635, Stone £515, Swann £275, Webb £755 and Williams £635.