river disqualified for 'serious misconduct' El An Ocean Xpress Logistics
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driver has been disqualified for making 79 false tachograph records By Roger Brown A DRIVER who created false records to conceal "horrifying periods" of excessive driving has been disqualified from driving trucks for two years by Nick Denton, the traffic commissioner (TC) for the South East.
Following a driver conduct hearing in Eastbourne last month, the TC said the behaviour of Jasvinder Arora — who was convicted of making 79 false records between May and August 2010, while working for Egham, Surrey-based Ocean Xpress Logistics — had amounted to "serious misconduct". The TC also revoked the 0-licence held by the business for one vehicle and one trailer.
A Vosa traffic examiner told Denton that his investigation into Arora's driving duties began after a police encounter with the driver in August 2010. After inspecting his tachographs, the officer concluded that Arora had used another driver's name to conceal his own excessive hours and insufficient rest. Arora initially claimed that a second driver, Manjit Dhami, had been driving and presented 40 tachograph charts in Dhami's name.
It eventually transpired that Dhami worked for another operator and had never driven for Ocean Xpress. On one occasion, Arora drove for 18 hours and 20 minutes in a 24-hour period.
Ocean Xpress director Shalini Arora, Jasvinder's wife, admitted her husband had carried out most of the day-to-day running of the firm and that she had little knowledge of drivers' hours rules. Arora said his offences had been wrong, but he had felt under pressure to recoup losses following a period of absence from the business to attend to personal matters.
Arora was sentenced at Ipswich Magistrates' Court in August 2012 to eight months' imprisonment for the drivers' hours breaches but he was released last November. He said he had made changes to the business since leaving prison, including employing a new director and transport manager.
However, the TC concluded: "The convictions incurred by Mr Arora were numerous, were related to offences committed over a sustained period of four months, and were serious; attempting to conceal some horrifying periods of driving and duty time."
Denton disqualified Shalini Arora from holding an 0-licence indefinitely. He said Ocean Xpress had paid its former transport manager Stuart McAuliffe a token £150 a month for 16 hours to be a "flag of convenience" transport manager. The TC disqualified McAuliffe for three years.
Summing up The TC said Arora made a conscious decision to falsify his tacho records.