Charges are thrown out
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I. Magistrates
have thrown out charges against a haulier for allegedly failing to make a driver hand in his tachograph charts within 21 days.
The case was dropped after the magistrates refused to accept photocopies of the charts as evidence.
A policewoman from Lancashire Police said she had stopped a truck belonging to Great Harwood-based SB (Tippers) in May and found tacho charts going back to January.
But Michael Peterson, defending, told Blackburn magistrates that if the prosecution was relying on documentary evidence, it had to produce originals of the documents. This law dated back to 1671, he said.
The prosecution admitted it had failed to ask the company to produce the original charts.
Magistrates ordered 2400 of the company's defence costs to be paid out of public funds.