Haulier may face jail after guilty plea
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• A Wes t Lancashire haulier has been warned that he might be facing a prison sentence after admitting his involvement in the falsification of tachograph charts.
William Spencer of Ivy Farm, Station Road, Barton, Down Holland, who is managing director of WS Container Transit, of Burscough, pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to falsify tachograph records and break the tachograph regulations between October 1992 and June 1994.
Spencer, who had initially denied the charges, changed his plea at the start of a trial that was expected to last two weeks at Liverpool Crown Court. No evidence was offered against the company, transport manager Derek Shaw. or traffic clerk Martin Spencer: formal not guilty verdicts were entered.
John Prowse, prosecuting, said that a police investigation had started after one of the company's lorries was stopped. The company's paperwork had been examined in great
Postponing sentencing Spencer until 2,1 May pending reports. Judge Clifton said he would want to know
how much Spencer had profited from breaking the regulations.
After Prowse had said that it was virtually impossible to say, Judge Clifton commented that if a driver were employed for longer than was permitted in a day it was obvious that more profit was made.
Prowse said it was suggested by the defence that one reason for drivers "fiddling their hours" was that they wanted to get back into the UK early for their own purposes.
For Spencer, John Wishart said that the profit had been used to keep the business going. They were talking about duty hours— it was not a case of drivers regularly driving long distances "with matchsticks in their eyes to keep them open", Granting Spencer bail on condition he resides at Ivy Farm, Judge Clifton warned that one of the possible sentences was a prison sentence.