Employer fined for aiding and abetting
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• Tru-Fresh Ltd, egg packer and distributor of Freckleton, Lancashire, was fined a toial of £50 with £32.35 costs before Lytham St Annes magistrates this week on charges of aiding and abetting a driver, failing to hand in records within seven days and for pemitting hours offences. Driver R. W. Stanfield of Holme Crescent, Trowden, nr Colne, was fined a total of £20 on 10 summonses for driving in excess of 10 hours, being on duty in excess of 12 hours and failing to hand in record sheets. Both defendants pleaded guilty.
Mr J. S. Lawton, prosecuting for the North Western LA, said a Ford van belonging to Tru-Fresh seen at Gawthorpe, Ossett, by a Yorkshire traffic examiner, had not displayed an identity certificate. The offences came to light upon examination of the drivers' records.
Mr Lawton submitted that the company's failure to call for the drivers' records had materially assisted in the commission of the hours offences.
Mr J. A. C. Lawson, secretary and manager of Tru-Fresh, said in mitigation that the responsibility for records was one of his own duties and the difficulty arose at a particularly busy period. Stanfield was one of two drivers based away at Colne and had he (Lawson) done his job properly the offences would not have been committed.
The company received an absolute discharge on a summons for using an unlicensed goods vehicle after Mr Lawton had indicated that it had a. margin for additional vehicles.
Mr Lawson said he had failed to notify the addition but there. was no intention of avoiding payment of fee.