Judge slashes Skehan's C and U fines
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• A judge has reduced fines imposed on an Irish driver for Construction and Use offences from £2,000 to £520, and expressed strong disapproval that he had been held in custody until his employer, P&O subsidiary Transcontinental, had paid his fines.
Martin Skehan of County Tipperary had appealed to Taunton Crown Court against fines of £500 for using a vehi cle when the tachograph was not working correctly, £700 for using it with defective trailer brakes, £100 for using it with an insecure driver's seat, and £700 for using it with a defective fifth wheel coupling.
For Skehan, Simon Morgan said he had been stopped in a check on the morning of 16 June. He was arrested by police officers and kept in custody before appearing before Taunton Deane Magistrates later that day. He was then de tained in custody until his employers paid the fines at Fleetwood police station at 19:00hrs that evening.
The Court was told that the trailer brakes were out of adjustment; a clip had broken allowing movement in the driver's seat, and the clip securing the fifth-wheel locking device was missing.
Noel Heffernan, Roslare operations manager of Transcontinental, said that the trailer was one of a batch of 10 that had been bought with automatic brake adjusters. The trailers had constantly been back to the suppliers because of complaints by drivers about brakes going out of adjustment: the automatic adjusters had been replaced with mechanical components just before the check. Recorder ACD Markham-David said he accepted that Skehan was telling the truth when he said he was unaware of the lack of adjustment of the brakes.