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Shearings driver fined
Page 21
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• A Smiths Shearings tour coach driver has been fined £140 after operating sight-seeing excursions in addition to the tour itinerary without the knowledge of the company.
Appearing before the Wigan Magistrates, Alan Hazelhurst, of Derwent Place, Ulverston, admitted four offences of using a coach without insurance, for which he was given an absolute discharge; two offences of failing to enter his name on a tachograph chart, for which he was given a conditional discharge for one year; and six drivers' hours offences, where he was fined £20 per offence.
He was also fined £20 after being convicted of one offence of taking insufficient daily rest.
He pleaded not guilty to seven offences of making a false entry in tachograph charts, and the magistrates dismissed those charges.
John Wilson, prosecuting, said the charges arose out of the operation of additional excursions by Hazelhurst on a tour to the Lake District.
An examination of the tachograph charts revealed that the coach was used for an extra journey one Tuesday night, and Hazelhurst subsequently admitted to Smiths Shearings he had been taking passengers to Morecambe Illuminations. As the coach was not being used on the company's business on the four dates in question, it was not covered by insurance.
PC Graham Robinson, of Greater Manchester Police, said there was missing mileage on seven of the charts examined. Hazelhurst said that he could not explain the discrepancies, but had not knowingly made a false record. The only possible explanation for the missing mileage was that someone must have used the coach on his rest day.
He would not have driven the coach if he had realised it was not covered by insurance.
Hazelhurst had been sacked by the company and felt he was being made a scapegoat.