Haulier denies tacho counselling charges
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by Mike Jewell • The trial of a haulage company director whose drivers were said to have made falsification of tachograph charts a way of life, has begun at Carlisle Crown Court.
Niels Eric Christoffersen, of Green Bank, Well Road, Moffatt, a director of NE Transport & Plant Hire (Broughty Ferry), denied six counts of counselling and procuring drivers to falsify tachograph charts.
The company's former transport manager, Maurice Henderson, of St Annes, Carlisle, previously pleaded guilty to six similar offences.
In November 1993 nineteen of the company's drivers were ordered to pay more than £7,000 in fines and costs after admitting the falsification of tachograph charts.
Prosecuting, Mark Laprell said the prosecution case was that by 1992 Christoffersen had decided to maximise the return each vehicle made by ensuring drivers ran over their hours. The drivers had been induced to falsify tachograph records primarily for the benefit of Christoffersen and his company, he said. Almost a fifth of records obtained by the police for a six week period were false, he told the court, and there were a substantial number missing. The drivers drove more than 1,000km a day, were paid a basic wage and a percentage of their lorry's earnings, which in itself was illegal, said Laprell.
Giving evidence, a former NE Transport driver said he had worked more illegally than legally and that Christoffersen wanted more and more earnings from the vehicles. He had heard drivers object two or three times to having too much to do; Christoffersen would say there were plenty of others willing to do it if they would not, he said.
The case continues.