Euro tacho charts fraud
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• A Crown Court Judge has ruled that drivers who falsify their tachograph charts abroad and then produce them to their employers or enforcement officers when they
return to this country are guilty of fraud. Three drivers employed by Bulldog International Transport Express of Andover, Hants were accused at Winchester Crown Court of using a false instrument with the intention of inducing someone to accept it as genuine, and thereby not to do something to their or another's prejudice, contrary to the 1981 Forgery and Counterfeiting Act.
Judge Ian Stanforth Hill QC said a tachograph chart was an "instrument" for the purposes of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act. Following that ruling, Anthony Osman, of Central Street, Ludgershall, pleaded guilty to six offences of using a false instrument. Richard Mills, of Shackleton Square, Andover, pleaded guilty to 12 such offences, and Robert Chalker, of Stuart Crescent, Winchester, to 11 offences.
Prosecuting, James Bullen said that when police requested the production of the company's tachograph charts there was no doubt that Bulldog did all in its power to destroy them.
Joseph Giret, for the drivers, said it had not been a case of falsifying to get more pay, but to remain gainfully employed. If Bulldog could not compete with foreign hauliers, the drivers might not be employed. The drivers had seen their foreign counterparts acting in a similar manner without repercussions.
Some 99% of the Bulldog work was in Italy. Drivers called it 'bandit country". The idea of parking around any of the major Italian cities filled them with dread. Mills had twice been hijacked. Consequently, charts had been 'pieced together" to enable them to get home.
Fining Osman £80, Mills £150 and Chalker £140, Judge Stanforth Hill said he would have taken a very serious view if the drivers had made mountains of money or had deceived their employers.
However, it seemed highly probable that Bulldog knew the charts were false and the whole blame could not lie on the drivers' shoulders.
The company and two of its directors were fined £12,645 for the offences in August (CM 13-19 August).