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Traffic Commissioners and courts develop thick skins but they must
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still be surprised at some of the unlikely excuses for law-breaking that come their way. Patrick Hook recalls some of the taller tales told in UK courts this year as well as sparing our sympathy for one or two foreign drivers who were treated less than fairly.
1 t is curious to look hack over the past 12 months and realise that it could be looking at any dozen months in the past decade Like lemmings that rush headlong regardless of their own safety; there seems to be a breed of operator which fails to learn from the mistakes of others or to understand the kric is there for the protection and benefit of the majority. However, there were a few, particularly foreign drivers, who suffered more than they were due
The morning after
r.`t. John Leadbetter of Fleetwood, a lorry driver with three convictions for drink/driving, had his LGV licence revoked "indefinitely" by a Licensing Authority Leadbetter argued that on the first two occasions he had been out drinking the night before. On the third occasion he claimed to have been hit by a passing car while riding his moped. In fact he had collided with a parked vehicle and fallen off.
What illegal immigrants?
:f Stopped as he entered the country at Dover, Akeel Arshad Hussein produced his brother's passport and claimed that he did not know of the presence of 25 illegal immigrants in the back of his lorry. Nor did he think it suspicious that he had been offered £500 to collect and deliver a load from Holland. The 24-year-old is now serving a four-year sentence.
Plea under duress
..`c Irishman Dennis O'Sullivan, threatened with continued imprisonment if he did not
; plead guilty, had his £500 fine and conviction
g for overloading set aside. As a foreigner he was arrested at the roadside and detained pending
6 his appearance before a court. O'Sullivan was then informed by the Crown Prosecution
g Service that, unless he changed his plea to guilty he would be remanded in custody until a substantial surety could he found. In the face of this, he changed his plea and was fined. His solicitor later successfully argued that the admission had been obtained wider duress and the conviction was overturned.
All wired up
* A Scottish haulier had his licence suspended for three weeks after a third of his fleet was found to have been fitted with wiring designed to interfere with the tachograph. In one case, the work would have required the removal of the dashboard. In spite of knowing that the wires were fitted, the haulier, Alexander Anderson of Ayrshire, had taken no positive measures to deal with the problem.
Sacked for wanting a contract
* In early spring a driver sacked for requesting written terms of employment and other irregularities relating to wages and hours of work was awarded compensation of 0,300 for unfair dismissal. The grounds for the finding were that Robert Sinclair, trading as MS Couriers of Perth, had failed to give any warnings and had not instituted any disciplinary hearings before the dismissal of the driver, Donald Stuart.
Fraud to promotion
-AOne of three drivers who systematically falsified their tachos in order to [ claim overnight allowances from his employer has since been promoted to operations manager. The managing director of Alan Morris (Bulk Transport), Deeside, told the court that, although he had been upset by the fraud, he regarded all three men as "excellent employees" and had since promoted Terry Axon of Fardon, the man who had falsified his records more frequently than the other two defendants.
Confused of Shropshire
* One Shropshire-based driver, whose brain must have been in neutral, produced two tacho charts to police in two names and later admitted that one was an alias to allow him to drive for longer than allowed. At the time he was stopped, Frederick Rogerson of Wem was within his permitted hours!
Tacho charts thrown on to tip
In evidence described as "an unlikely tale" by the Licensing Authority, Mervyn Appleby, a director of Wednesfieldbased Impexstone claimed that, when production of its tacho charts was demanded by police, his company had given them to a consultant for analysis. Within days the consultant, Don Fisher, an ex-VI enforcement manager, had claimed that the charts had all been thrown away by his wife. Repeated attempts to call Fisher as a witness failed, leaving the company to pay a fine of £900 for failing to produce the charts. Fisher continues to be employed by the company as a consultant.
Indefinite disqualification
et. Failing to appear at a disciplinary hearing for a second time, Chris Power, a Liverpool haulier who had had 18 prohibitions imposed in 24 months (for 22 immediately dangerous defects), was disqualified for an indefinite period, The maintenance was so poor that two of the immediate prohibitions were imposed at a formal inspection. The North-Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner said it was the worst case he had adjudicated.
Jailed for out-of-date driving licence
* An Irish driver, Gerard Ruddon of Balieborough, was kept in custody overnight because his licence had expired. Fortunately he was given a conditional discharge with no costs_ Had costs or a fine been imposed, he would have spent yet more time in the cells while funds were remitted to the court from Ireland.
Runaway tipper
▪ The driver of a tipper which ran out of control down a hill before crash ing into a house, was so traumatised by the incident that his career is at an end. A court was told that, in spite of a request to his employer, F Tee Transport of Mansfield, by driver Keith Taylor of Chesterfield to check the vehicle two days before the incident, the lorry was found with four excessiyely worn brake linings and a seized load-sensing valve. Taylor is now suing his former employer.
Tearing frustration
* When stopped by police, owner-driver George Davidson of Fraserburgh tore up his tachograph, threw it out of the cab window and then tried to grind the pieces into the ground with his hoot. Unfortunately for him, the police put the pieces back together and he was fined for obstructing police and three offences of falsifying tacho charts. It was not his first conviction.
The bucket lest
* In June a court was told that residue building up inside a tipper was the cause of an overloading offence. It was claimed on behalf of the company, AS Haulage of Liverpool and its driver, Anthony Bishop, that there were no weighing facilities either at the point of collection or destination. Fines totalling £1,000 were handed down.
No sympathy for Old Bill
* A plain-clothes police officer trying to stop an HGV was manhandled by the driver who thought he had been "carved up" by a private motorist. Sympathising with his mistake, the court gave the driver, Christopher Walker of Ipswich, a conditional discharge.
Loose nuts
*A driver sacked for failing to notice loose wheelnuts or a bald tyre was ordered to be paid £1,288 in compensation because there had been no disciplinary procedure and no proper investigation. Anthony Parker of Houghton Regis should have been given advance notification of a hearing and the nature of any charge by Luton haulier AW Transport, so as to prepare his defence.
Not me guy'
* In January a company's attempts to blame its drivers for its maintenance problems were described as "spectacularly unconvincing" by a Traffic Commissioner and resulted in a reduction of more than 50% in the number of vehicles on the company's licence. For the company, Lakeside Haulage of West Thurrock, general manager Barry Eddicott argued that defect books had been thrown out of cab windows and that drivers had "more or less wrecked vehicles. ... running them into the ground".
The two most common breaches of law for the industry arise out of poor maintenance and exceeding driver hours. Both are a symptom of the very low profit margins and the quite extraordinary level of competition that is the hauliers' lot. There is at least an argument, an the grounds of safety, for a higher financial threshold into the profession or a reduction in the huge excise fees charged by the state for the use of an liGV: Meanwhile, perhaps it would be a good idea if the _kw who break tlw law would take a few minutes to think about what they think they are up to