Tacho offences cost JF Alford £32,000
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• Southampton haulier JP Alford, its managing director and 20 employees have been fined more than £20,000 for a series of tachograph offences with the judge accusing the manage. ment of "a lamentable state of supervision".
The £2m-turnover company, managing director James Alford and transport manager Peter Payne had been found guilty in June of eight counts of aiding and abetting false entries on a record sheet.
Sentencing on Monday (2 September), Judge McLean said: "I am only dealing with a period
of three months or so that the investigation covers and see a lamentable state of supervision.
Drivers will always try to increase weekly pay by some means or other and it was quite clear from the documents, if they had cared to look at them, what was going on."
Alford was fined £5,000, Payne £1,000 and the company £10,000 with £22,000 costs.
In their defence it was pointed out that the problems had arisen because of staff illness; that the company had never been in trouble before; and that a system had been set up to stop such a situation recurring.
also brought against 31 drivers for making false entries on record sheets: 19 drivers pleaded guilty, leaving 10 to still face trial—two drivers had previously pleaded guilty at magistrates court.
The 19 were sentenced to pay £75 costs each with fines between £50 and £200.