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Drivers and partners up on tack, charges
Page 12
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• by Michael Jewell
Two drivers employed by Hexham-based William Martin Oliver & Partners were given community service orders and each ordered to pay .£1,200 towards prosecution costs, after admitting falsifying tachograph charts at Newcastle upon Tyne Crown Court, Last July, 10 of the firm's drivers were jailed for two months for similar offences and another 15 were ordered to do community service varying between 100 and 240 hours (CM3-9 April).
Dean Wear, of North Shields, pleaded guilty to 15 offences, and Tracy Leadbitter, of Newcastle upon Tyne, to 13 offences. Wear was ordered to undertake 220 hours of community service and Leadbitter 120 hours.
The case against a third driver, Terrance Middleton, of Brampton in Carlisle, who admitted 13 offences, was adjourned for pm-sentence reports. Prosecuting for the Vehicle inspectorate, Mark Laprell said that the men had falsified tachograph records day after day to hide inadequate rest and excessive driving.
The worksheets that the drivers filled in and submitted led to them being paid for hours they could not legitimately work. The drivers had managed to make the tachograph charts look legal when their workload was not.
At least 70 drivers were employed at the time, and the number prosecuted accounted for just short of 50% of that total. The other 50% were probably doing the same thing but not to the same extent. There were a large number of drivers for which no tachograph charts had been available. The falsifications were achieved by electronic interference, the most probable method being "pulling the fuse". It was blindingly obvious that these drivers were not having the required rest, said the judge.
• On the same day the firm's three partners, William, Marion and Stuart Oliver, appeared before the Newcastle upon Tyne Magistrates charged with conspiring together and with others to falsify tachograph charts. They were bailed to appear before the Crown Court on May 19.
North Eastern Traffic Commissioner Tom Macartney is to consider what action to take against the firm's 0-licence at a three-day Public Inquiry in June.