Driver pays 525 on tacho offences
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• Manchester lorry driver David McCartney was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £525 after Trafford magistrates convicted him of five offences of knowingly making false entries on tachograph charts.
McCartney, of Warnforcl Close, Newton Heath, Manchester, had initially admitted the offences but subsequently changed his plea to not guilty (CM 26 October-1 November 1995).
Prosecuting for the DOT, John Heaton said that McCartney was an experienced driver employed on a route to South Wales which he was familiar with. He had regularly driven the route without breaking the hours regula tions Or falsifying his records, so these offences had not been committed inadvertently. The distance unrecorded on the charts varied between 28 and 66km. Distance could only be removed from a chart by the driver.
Traffic examiner Tony Brown said that charts for journeys on Wednesdays last March were missing. Enquiries with one of McCartney's employers, Express Wholesale DIY of Ancoats, established that Wednesday was the day he drove to South Wales. Four of the five days on which the prosecution alleged charts had been falsified were Wednesdays on the South Wales route although the charts related to three different vehicles.
Express Wholesale's transport man ager Colin Fairbanks said the company operated seven vehicles and a van. None of the tachographs or odometers had been malfunctioning at the time. McCartney was given two days to travel down to South Wales with multi-drop loads of ironmongery, He had plenty of time to get back, and it was up to McCartney what order he made the drops in, as long as the route followed was direct.
Questioned by Roger Low, defending, Fairbanks said that though he checked the charts he did not do so in minute detail.
McCartney said that he had been a driver in the Army before joining Express Wholesale and he had had no previous experience of tachographs. He denied ever taking a chart out in midjourney or knowingly falsifying a chart. He accepted there was missing mileage but could offer no explanation. He said he had never driven without a chart in the tacho graph and pointed out that even on the dates where there was missing mileage he had ample driving time.
Low said that the missing mileages were not very substantial and the prosecution had to prove that it had been done deliberately and falsely. There was no apparent motive in terms of hours so there must be reasonable doubt that McCartney knew that the charts he was creating were false. He had lost his driving job as a result of the alleged offences, having been summarily dismissed by the company.
The magistrates fined McCartney £25 for each offence with .400 costs.