Driver told to wind the tacho forward
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• A Wakefield haulier has been accused of pressurising one of his drivers to break the law by falsifying tachograph records.
Macclesfield magistrates heard Stephen Moore, trading as Steama Transport, plead not guilty to 13 offences to aiding and abetting Shaun Redfern to falsify charts and to five offences of permitting him to take insufficient daily rest in November 1994.
At an earlier hearing Redfern was fined £500, with £50 costs, after admitting falsifying charts, taking insufficient rest and driving without due care and attention.
Patrick McKnight, prosecuting, said both cases followed an accident on the M6 when Redfern's 38-tonne artic struck the central barrier, ending up broadside and completely blocking the northbound can-iageway.
Charts in the cab were seized and analysis showed that a rest had been falsely recorded when he had been driving. Redfern was on a regular run, collecting fruit and vegetables from Coolchain, near Sittingbourne, and delivering to the north of England.
Redfern said he often had deliveries to make in London before loading at Coolchain and could not do it within permitted hours.
He added he was given instructions over the cab telephone, and if he said he had insufficient driving time left he was told to wind the clock on a bit or pull the fuse.
He was shown how to pull the fuse by another driver, Tony Johnson, in Moore's presence. On the day of the accident he had taken the fuse out and used a blank chart to stop the tachograph showing a full scale deflection on the chart when the fuse was replaced.
The allegations made by Redfern were rubbish, said Moore. It was a lie that he had told him to falsify charts. He never expected drivers to break the law and he did not recall ever being in the yard when Johnson and Redfern were together.
Moore said that Redfern's charts bore no relationship to what he should have been doing. He agreed he was the person who would gain most if more deliveries were done, but said he was not the only person to gain.
The magistrates adjourned the hearing for a fortnight.