Crown Court reduces tacho fines
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CAMBRIDGE Crown Court has slashed fines of i:10,400 imposed for false tachograph offences on haulier J. W. A. Spicer and Sons to .075.
The court reduced the fines of .1;800 imposed on each of 13 offences by the Newmarket magistrates to .275 per offence after hearing that the company would be crippled and jobs would be lost if the fines were left unaltered.
Martin Collier, for the prosecution, said the offences all related to one of the company's drivers, a William Miller.
Distances shown on Miller's tachograph charts did not tally with the distance traces, and on sonic occasions the tachograph clock had been wound back after a chart was removed.
The Department of Transport found this practice was used to enable drivers to cheat the system by driving for more hours than permitted.
There were numerous offences on almost every day in June 1985 and the prosecution regarded it as a serious matter.
Miller was tined :950 after admitting 18 offences.
For the company, Garetil the
lawkesworth said ti magistrates' penalties bore no relation to the nature of the offences or the culpability of the company.
They breached the principle that tines ought not to be imposed at a level that the defendent could not pay.
Miller had simply "got into a muddle" over the use of his tachograph.