Tacho offence blamed on pressure
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• A driver "caught red handed' with a wire which he had used to interfere with his tachograph has been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling L340.
Derek Jardine, of Hill Avenue, Troqueer, Dumfries, pleaded guilty to making a false tacho, graph record and taking insufficient daily rest, when he appeared before the High Peak, Buxton, magistrates.
Prosecuting for the DOT, John Heaton said that a Scania 38tonne artic owned by Irish haulier Patrick Boyle of Co Down, and driven by Jardine, was stopped in a check at Chapel-enle-Frith. Jardine had shown his current tachograph chart to the traffic examiner, which showed driving between 21:40hrs and 01:36hrs and then rest until 11:30hrs—which was the precise moment of the check. When the previous day's chart was examined it was evident that Jardine's maximum rest period in the 24hour period was 6hr 39min, When the traffic examiner said he suspected the equipment had been interfered with and that he would arrange for the vehicle dashboard to be dismantled to search for an interrupter device, Jardine produced a length of black plastic coated wire and admitted he had used it to turn the tachograph off and falsify the record.
Jardine said he had tried to steal a couple of hours in an attempt to get a load on to his lorry—if someone else got the load he would not be employed very long. He added that it had been a stupid thing to do but he did not want the boss down his throat: haulage was a cut-throat business and he had been pushed for time. He had been held up the day before and he got a load off late so he was late starting his collections. He would have been in trouble where his job was concerned if he had not collected the load.
Fining Jardine. the chairman of the magistrates said he was now aware of the consequences of that sort of dangerous offending.