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'Judges don't know about the fact of life of modern road haulage'

26th September 1996
Page 42
Page 42, 26th September 1996 — 'Judges don't know about the fact of life of modern road haulage'
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Innocent drivers accused of drug smuggling face harsh treatment from European courts, says Stephen Jakobi, campaigning lawyer of Fair Trials Abroad.

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Barely a week now passes without a case of an innocent trucker accused of a drug offence being reported in CM. Stan Allsop is among the latest.

Fair Trials Abroad has been involved as legal adviser to many individual truckers in trouble. A substantial number of these are not British, ranging from Spanish and Dutch drivers detained in Britain to Irish citizens detained in Spain and France. As a result of our work in the field we are convinced that truckers ore being regularly victimised throughout Europe as a result of failures in the system. Truckers found with drugs in their loads or in the structure of vehicles belonging to someone else face special handicaps that those accused of crime do not generally face.The "non-native" driver awaiting trial is usually in custody. As his case is invariably an international one he is at the mercy of international investigations. The delays involved show in the length of time those acquitted have spent in jail awaiting trial. Roy Clarke (20 months) Graham Duck (two years) were Britons remanded in Spain. Juan Cedes-Martinez (one year) Ben Rensink (seven months) were Spanish and Dutch citizens held before trial in the UK The disruption to their lives is often as great as though there had been a conviction. The chances of compensation ore poor. A presumption of guilt due to ignorance of the facts of international transport also makes conviction inevitable in some countries.

A court of appeal decision here six years ago abolished this for us. Now there must be proper evidence [pointing to the driver having knowledge of the drugs apart from the fact of it being in his load. That is not true elsewhere. We are aware of numbers of drivers accused of drug offences in much of Europe who have been convicted without such evidence. In John Harrower's appeal in France, the president of the court said: "Since you signed for the load, you are responsible for its contents".

The other problem is that judges don't know about the facts of life of modern road haulage. They need to be told by experts about containers, groupage, pre-packed trailers and all the Factors that give most truckers about as much control of the contents of their load as a postman has of the parcels in his van. Let us pay tribute to the pioneering work of the United Road Transport Union whose general secretary David Higginbottom has made himself available as an expert witness in the UK. We don't know much about the numbers of innocent drivers affected by the current position. Over the !past year about 50 carriers pleaded their innocence at trial in the UK and 30 were acquitted.These figures suggest there will be 500 drivers pleading their innocence and Facing trial annually in the EU. What cannot be taken into account is drivers arrested and held, sometimes for months, and then released without charge—Stanley Allsop's plight is typical. The recent customs understanding with URTU points the way ahead: "Both parties acknowledge that they are aware that many professional drivers have little or no knowledge of or control over their loads and should not, in the absence of further corroborating evidence, be held responsible or be subjected to [Prolonged detention simply on the basis of being theoretically in charge of a vehicle and/or load on or in which drugs have been secreted."

How long will we have to wait before the rest of Europe follows this lead?

• If you want to sound off about a road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane or fax your views (max. 600) words on 0/ 81 652 8912.


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