Tacho cheats hit by border patrols
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• Thirty truck drivers have been prosecuted for falsifying their tachograph records after a joint operation between Scottish and English police.
Police officers from Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway joined forces with the Vehicle Inspectorate to trap the offenders, who have been fined a total of £26,350. All have been dealt with by courts in Scotland for offences dating back to 1998.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Oulton, was led by PC Mike Woolaghan of the Cumbrian force. He says the success of the exercise was down to a lot of hard work by several officers.
The worst two offenders were fined £2,500 each. The average fine per false record was £371, while 11 drivers were fined £1,000 or more, with convictions for between one and seven records.
Vehicle Inspectorate officials reported that they had found evidence of systematic tachograph falsification, allowing drivers to work over their permitted hours.
All the defendants worked for one as yet unidentified company, and a report has now been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal, Bob Tatchell, operations director for the Vehicle Inspectorate, says: "The success of this operation highlights the benefits of working together with the police. The Vehicle Inspectorate will continue to undertake investigations to ensure that drivers who endanger road safety understand that we will make every effort to stop them."