Cheating made job easier
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A Cheshire lorry driver has been fined £1,000 with £150 costs for using a switch to interrupt tachographs.
Keith Baddeley of Winsford pleaded guilty before Chester Magistrates to 45 offences of falsifying tachograph records while driving a vehicle operated by his father, Winsford haulier Joseph Baddeley.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, John Pennington said the case was part of a major investigation into the widespread falsification of tachograph records involving tipper operations in North Wales and Cheshire.
A six-month examination of tachograph charts in June 1999 led to suspicions that Baddeley had caused various
parts of journeys to go unrecorded and that rest breaks had been recorded when the vehicle was clearly being driven on the public road. These were confirmed when delivery notes were obtained from quarries.
In November 1999 Baddeley's vehicle was seen to enter Town Farm Quarry at Crowton, Cheshire. An examination of the tachograph showed the outer Insulation of the cable between the tachograph head and impulse generator had been interrupted. The four individual wires forming part of the cable had been joined by electrical connectors.
Baddeley admitted fitting a switch to interrupt the tacho graph, and said that he had removed it at some point during the summer. Examination of further tachograph records revealed that, although the Vehicle Inspectorate investigation had begun in June 1999, Baddeley had continued to interrupt the tachograph until October that year. Asked what his motive for doing so was, Baddeley replied: It makes the job easier, doesn't it?"