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Ex-soldier sentenced for tachograph fraud

26th February 2009
Page 22
Page 22, 26th February 2009 — Ex-soldier sentenced for tachograph fraud
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Court issues a suspended sentence and Community Service Order after finding driver guilty.

A TACHO-FIDDLING lorry driver has been given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and a 150-hour Community Service Order.

Stephen Cope, of Crewe, had been sent for sentence to Chester Crown Court by the city's magistrates after he had pleaded guilty to 15 offences of knowingly falsifying tacho records.

Prosecuting for VOSA, Paul O'Brien said that on 27 February 2008,a 17-tonne vehicle belonging to Michael Smith, trading as Amic Haulage, of Crewe. and driven by the defendant Cope, was stopped in a check.

Analysis of Cope's charts by a traffic examiner revealed a number of discrepancies. and Cope admitted they were not true and accurate records.

He told the traffic examiner that he had wanted to get home early so that he could carry out extra work the following day and earn more money. Tacho charts for November 2007 to February 2008 were obtained from Cope's employer. These showed he had been removing the chart from the tacho head, and, sometimes, even taken it out on the motorway. The amount of unrecorded distance over the threemonth period was 1,500km.

There had been no sophistication in the falsifications, said O'Brien. although a cursory glance wouldn't have revealed them.When interviewed. Cope admitted he had not taken sufficient breaks.

Asked about a chart that was dated 5 November 2007 on which 152km were missing, he said it was probably a two-day job, but he had delivered the goods in one day and decided to return to base. He had not been asked to falsify tachograph records by his employer.


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