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Euro offences tested

25th march 1993, Page 8
25th march 1993
Page 8
Page 8, 25th march 1993 — Euro offences tested
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by Karen Miles • Hauliers must wait until the summer for a court case to help decide how easily UK police can prosecute drivers for tachograph offences committed elsewhere in the EC.

News of the test case comes as police in the south of England appear to be turning to the littleused Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 to mount a campaign against drivers falsifying tacho charts on the Continent The case which is expected to be heard at London's Court of Criminal Appeal involves an appeal by three drivers employed by Andover-based Bulldog Transport. Last year they were found guilty of falsifying tacho charts in Italy and France under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act The drivers have been offered legal aid.

Lawyers for the company are expected to argue that because the police seized charts from Bulldog's UK office, and not from a roadside check, no-one is guilty under the Forgery Act. In theory this law allows easier prosecution of drivers who have falsified records while abroad. It also carries much heavier sentences than conventional UK road traffic law.

Two more drivers from a Portsmouth-based transport company were arrested last week for questioning under the Forgery Act. Sussex police had also previously arrested another driver as he drove off the ferry at Portsmouth.

They questioned him over alleged drivers' hours offences committed on the Continent in the year to September 1992 (CM18-24 March).


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