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Bosses banned for 'blatant' tack' abuse
Page 10
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• by Michael Jewell Two airectors of a Scottish haulage firm have been banned
from holding Operators' Licences for five years in what Scottish Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts called one of the -saddest and most blatant cases" of tachograph abuse he has encountered.
John and Brian McDonald, partners at John F McDonald &, Partners near Brechin, were banned and their firm's licence was revoked after five of its eight trucks were checked in December 2001.
Senior traffic examiner Gomm Macdonald told an Aberdeen disciplinary inquiry that a tip-off led to a joint Vehicle Inspectorate and police operation at Craigforth interchange.
Officers inspected tachograph wiring and found protec7ive steel covering had been cut away, the inquiry heard, Unauthorised extra wires had peen spliced into three Scanias. Roy McDonald, a driver at the firm and cousin of the directors, denied any knowledge of the device in his Scania.
In two MANs an internal light switch cut the power supply to the tachograph when turned on, said Macdonald. One of the trucks had 126 power interruptions recorded.
in every case these were sophisticated devices that had been professionally fitted to facilitate illegal driving activity," said Macdonald.
Brian McDonald told the inquiry: "It is something many operators have done and I heard about it, probably in a transport cafe."
Revoking the licence, TC Betts said: "This is one of the saddest cases I have heard, but one of the most blatant." He called it an act of outright stupidity,