Mother used as tacho cover
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'. -A2' A Derbyshire
owner-driver who used his mother's name on tachograph charts to hide excessive hours has been ordered to pay 2500 Wines and costs.
When John Barker, of Matlock, appeared before High Peak magistrates he pleaded guilty to four offences of falsifying tachograph records. They fined him 2100 per offence with 2100 costs.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, John Heaton said that Barker operated a 28tonne tipper carrying aggregate from quarries in Derbyshire. He had eventually admitted what he had done, saying he had been offered extra work and could not afford to turn it down.
Barker's mother did drive HGVs but had not been the driver on those occasions. The first two charges related to driving that was spread out over almost 24 hours. In the first case Barker had worked for 23 hours and in the second for 113 hours. The other two charges related to days on which Barker should have been taking his weekly rest.
Appearing for Barker, Martin Walker said his mother knew nothing of the offences and when he had realised he might have put her in difficultYhe had immediately taken action to "come clean". He had taken on extra work in a bid to alleviate his financial difficulties, The magistrates offered to treat this as a one-off incident.