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Less for Wheeler
Page 26
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• Convictions for tachograph offences have led to Western LA Major General John Carpenter cutting the authorisation on the licence held by Bridgwater-based Wheeler & Son from 16 vehicles and 32 trailers to six vehicles and 26 trailers.
In February the company and 10 of its drivers were ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £8,21S by Sedgemoor Magistrates for a series of offences including the falsification of tachograph charts. The company admitted 23 offences of causing drivers to make false entries on tachograph charts; 15 of failing to retain tachograph charts for 12 months, and three of permitting a driver to use an HGV without an HGV licence (CM 22-28 February).
The LA was told that the missing charts all related to one vehicle, and it had not been a case of hiding records. The fiddling of charts by the drivers had gone undiscovered following a change in the chart checking system in 1988. Since the convictions, a senior director, Gerald Wheeler, had come out of retirement. He had taken control of the running of the business from his sons and it was now back on the straight and narrow.