Vehicles Not Identified by
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Log Sheets courtDecision DRIVERS' records are not legally documents identifying their vehicles, Dundee Sheriff Court has decided. Joseph Cosgrove, trading as James
Cosgrove, Dundee, had 166 summonses concerning records dismissed after his solicitor, Mr. Walter Fletcher, had submitted that they were irrelevant.
Sheriff Christie said no offence had been disclosed by the prosecution.
Cosgrove was accused of having allowed his drivers' records to be used in such a manner that they purported to show that the vehicles were operating under C-hire allowance. Mr. Fletcher contended that the documents could not be regarded as identifying authorized vehicles.
He pointed out that the Licensing Authority was empowered to dispense with the keeping of records by particular drivers. If she records had to be used to identify vehicles, this dispensation would be impossible. In any case, said Mr. Fletcher, it was not necessary to keep records in any particular form.
A driver could write down on a piece of paper his name, vehicle number, licence number and the time he had spent on his journey. That would be the end of it, but the document could certainly not be said to identify the vehicle. Only a document issued by the Licensing Authority could do that.
Mr, John Skeen, deputy fiscal, replied that it was not correct to say that a driver's records were intended only to keep a check on the hours worked. They also included a description of the goods carried, the destination, and the identification number of the A, 13 or C licence, together with the vehicle's registration number.
Dismissing the summonses, Sheriff Christie said it seemed quite clear to him that the law never intended " an identifying document" to mean a log sheet.
£800 Fines When the case continued on Tuesday, Cosgrove admitted 235 other offences167 involving the use of C-licence lorries for coal haulage, 59 for not conforming to the conditions of his B licence, and nine of exceeding his B-licence radius. For the first offences he was fined a total of £500, for the second £250 and for the third £50.
The major charges concerned the hiring of lorries and drivers to a local concern under their C-hiring allowance. A witness for the defence said that Cosgrove had been seriously ill and had left the running of his business to inex
perienced staff. He had attempted to undertake C-hiring legally, but instead of having his drivers' hiring agency at a separate address. he had it at his own office and the books became mixed up.
Sheriff Christie said anyone attempting to take advantage of a loophole in the law did so at his peril. There was possibly a good deal of money involved in the transactions, and unless a substantial penalty were imposed, the law would have no sanction at al!