Owner-driver without CPC ran wagon
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Bernard Brereton of Stoke-on-Trent
III A Stoke-on-Trent owner-driver, who ran without a licence because of difficulties in passing the examination for a Certificate of Professional Competence, was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £550 by Fenton magistrates.
Bernard Brereton, of Bucknall, admitted nine offences of using a vehicle without an operator's licence, eight offences of taking insufficient daily rest, and one offence of exceeding 10 hours driving in a day.
Prosecuting for the West Midland Traffic Area, Patrick McKnight said that the restrictions on a driver's hours were purely in aid of road safety, ensuring that drivers did not fall asleep at the wheel A traffic examiner had seen an articulated outfit, the trailer loaded with a container, parked unattended. No 0-licence identity disc was displayed. Inquiries revealed that the vehicle was owned by the defendant.
When interviewed, Brereton admitted that he had no operator's licence. He said that he had failed the CPC examination and was due to take it again. He admitted he had been operating the vehicle for some time without a licence.
Brereton was asked to produce tachograph charts. The charts showed that his rest periods varied between three hours 40 minutes and eight hours 36 minutes; on one occasion he had driven for 10 hours 30 minutes.
Brereton told the court that he had acquired the vehicle in November 1985 but had not run it until March 1986. The vehicle had been serviced and maintained whenever necessary. It had not turned a wheel since the traffic examiner's visit. He was due to take the CPC examination in October. Driving had been his job since he was 17. He had run the wagon because he did not want to go on the dole.
Fining Brereton £25 on each offence, and ordering hm to pay prosecution costs of £100, the chairman of the magistrates said that these were serious offences,