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Bulman fine 'a warning'

12th September 1991
Page 20
Page 20, 12th September 1991 — Bulman fine 'a warning'
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• Penrith-based Bulman Bulk and Haulage was fined £9,500 after it admitted 16 charges of aiding and abetting drivers to falsify tachograph charts when it appeared at Carlisle Crown Court.

Mark Laprell, prosecuting, said the charts from August 1989 were inconsistent with a series of checks by Cumbria Police and did not tally with the booking in and out times at premises where the vehicles were loading or unloading. Bulman's vehicles were equipped with electronic tachographs and it was possible to make perfect falsifications by tampering with the electrical supply, he said. In this case the usual method had been to pull the fuse.

It was alleged that the three men involved in Bulman's management, directors Peter busby and David Brown, and the transport manager, a Mr Hardy, deliberately went along with giving excessive work to drivers. At best they did not care if it could be done within the hours limits, and at worst they knew that it could not, said Laprell. Hillman's system of operation was simply to never refuse a load, he added.

Defending, Clement Goldstone maintained that neither of the two directors had known what was going on. He said that the company had an excellent safety record: the offences had not been committed to create greatly increased profits.

Most of the company's £5.5m turnover related to sub-contracted work, he said, only £1m related to its own vehicles. The net profit was £11 or £12 per load; the difference between those drivers who falsified and those who did not was about three loads a fortnight.

Fining the company £500 per offence with £1,500 costs, Judge Hugh Webster said the purpose of the regulations was public safety. He had to show other hauliers that such breaches of the law would be costly with a penalty that was not only a warning to Bulman's, but also to other hauliers who might allow their drivers to falsify charts.


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