Vale tries again Driver fined 12,000 for 444 pulling tachograph fuses
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Removing the fuse from his tachograph has cost Holywell, North Wales-based owner-driver Thomas Corbett 22,200 in fines and costs. After Corbett pleaded guilty to eight offences of falsification Flintshire magistrates fined him 2250 per offence with 2200 costs.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Albert Oldfield said that Corbett was contracted by Tarmac Construction to haul building materials from quarries in North Wales to sites in the North-West.
As part of a wider operation, traffic examiner Geoff Whitley visited Corbett's depot to inspect his tachograph records. After examining the charts, Whitley suspected that the rest periods had been recorded when the vehicle was being driven off the road in the quarries, or when it was loading and unloading.
Up to 35 minutes of rest had been recorded when the vehicle was on the move: Whitley sus pected that Corbett had pulled the fuse from his tacho.
When asked about a journey between Wrexham and Pant, Corbett had suggested that if it had been bad weather at the time the fuse might have blown. In fact, said Oldfield, the offences showed a pattern of removing the fuse to falsify the tacho charts.
The VI regarded this sort of offence as the most serious that they prosecuted. Here was an experienced haulier, with many years in the Industry, who was falsifying tacho records so he could potentially work longer hours than was allowed.
Corbett said he did have a bit of electrical trouble with the tachograph now and then, and it did on occasions blow a fuse. However, he agreed that he had pulled the fuse on the occasions before the court.
He said it was a case of a big firm squeezing a little firm and it was very hard to make a living in this day and age—sometimes, it was impossible. He earned about 2250 a week after paying his fuel bill and road tax.