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Drivers in drugs danger
Page 8
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• There are growing fears that British truck drivers are being duped into carrying drugs into the UK.
Many operators, who abhor the drug trade, have told Commercial Motor that the sentences handed out to British drivers found transporting drugs do not reflect the difficulties over identifying loads.
In the latest case, a driver who collected a pre-loaded truck in Spain was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for smuggling 22.5 million worth of cannabis, when the drug was discovered on board his truck at Dover.
The driver, William Danniels, 44, has consistently denied he had any knowledge of the crate of cannabis, which formed part of a groupage load sealed by Spanish customs.
Daniels has 24 years' driving experience with no previous drug offences.
The prosecution alleged that Daniels could have hidden the cannabis between leaving the Hattiel warehouse in Barcelona and arriving at the port, a journey which normally takes five minutes, but allegedly took Daniels about an hour. Daniels maintains there was a delay between the goods being loaded and the time he left the Haniel premises because he had to sheet down the truck.
For Daniels, solicitor Brian Rose-Smith says he considers the sentence excessively harsh. "Daniels had no previous convictions or allegations against him — this was the first time he had ever been prosecuted; 14 years is the maximum sentence for class B drugs — and he got 13."
Daniels was working for Canberra Freight Services of London on a sub-contract when the incident happened. Proprietor Gary Tarrant says that Daniels was "devastated" by the events.
"He'd taken a load out to Spain and when he was unloading in Barcelona, I rang round
to find a return load," says Tarrant. "Daniels didn't want to take a groupage load; he wanted fruit so he'd only have one delivery, but I said he had to take a groupage load." E All consignors should be required to supply hauliers with certificates in writing, guaranteeing the gross weight of goods to be carried, says Road Haulage Association directorgeneral Bryan Colley.
Colley believes such a requirement, created by an amendment to the 1988 Road Traffic Act, would deter unscrupulous customers from overloading hauliers' vehicles for their own gain.
"As the law stands, there are difficulties in establishing liability," says Colley.