To return to your hypothetical question, it is unlikely that
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the " manufactured " chart would maintain credibility under detailed analysis. The trace pattern obtained during day-time traffic conditions is different from that obtained during night-time traffic conditions. Undoubtedly the pattern of tracing on the chart would betray the deception when a comparison was made with a genuine chart. nThough the fitting of tachographs looks like becoming compulsory very shortly, I am still unconvinced that a driver cannot manipulate an instrument to his advantage.
For instance, if a driver having finished his driving day and due to spend a night out decided to adjust the clock on the instrument to depict the time he should recommence duty and then drive home, 'there is no way of detecting that this has taken place. Of course he would have to take the chart out of the instrument at once and reset the clock to the correct time. Apart from the hazard of a roadside check is there any way that a scrutiny of the chart would reveal such an irregularity ?
A Superficially, there is nothing to prevent a driver " manufacturing" a tachograph chart in the way you have described. It is, of course, completely illegal and if such a driver was stopped during the journey he would be prosecuted. The maximum penalty for each offence is £400.
In order that his employer should not find himself prosecuted for "causing or permitting," a notice should be placed in drivers' pay packets at regular intervals calling their attention to the regulations.