THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES
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Three British drivers spent a miserable Christmas in a Turkish jail, accused of being involved in an export fraud. They were released recently—but for their haulage bosses the nightmare goes on as they face crippling costs in an attempt to free their confiscated trucks.
DRIVER'S EXPERIENCE
• Peter Thomas has spent the past eight years travelling all over the world as a long-haul driver. But he is considering packing the job in after his treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities.
He has witnessed corruption and abuse of the legal system at first hand and is keen to pass on his experiences to warn other drivers.
"The trouble began at the Turkish border when officials wanted to unload my truck and examine the contents. "When the boxes were put on I never checked them and the Turks found they weren't all full. I was panicking because I thought I could have been stitched up with drugs or anything," he says. Thomas was then placed under virtual house arrest for nine days at the border post. There was only a cold tap to wash under and he was allowed to go to a restaurant only five times. Each time he was escorted by a police officer and made to pay for the petrol money. He says : "Then one morning they knocked on my truck door and said I was going to court. The police were standing there with TV crews and I was whisked off in a daze."
A local schoolteacher acted as interpreter in court and a shocked Thomas and his two colleagues were led off to prison, "We were in damp cells on disgusting mattresses eating only boiled eggs and bread. The only money we had went on buying the odd piece of cheese to keep us going," he says. Thomas was eventually set free just after Christmas, but the experience has left him disillusioned: "Ralph Davies wants me to go back to work but I'm not sure. I'm getting fed up with ions hauls and I'll be looking For something a bit more local here in Bristol."
Their faces were splashed across every news-stand as three truck drivers jailed for Christmas in a Turkish prison were finally reunited with their families amid emotional scenes at Gatwick airport.
As the flashbulbs fade away the men are trying to put the traumatic experience behind them and get on with their daily lives.
But the Turkish ordeal continues for the drivers' bosses as they fight for the return of their trucks and trailers still impounded by the local authorities.
And for Mike Jack of Bradford-based Weetwood Freight Services the loss of earnings is proving crippling with two thirds of his three-strong fleet out of action. He says : "To tell you the truth, this has buggered us up completely.
"I don't know whether I'll have to pack up or what."
The two vehicles belonging to Weetwood and another truck owned by Cheltenham firm Ralph Davies International Haulage were confiscated on the Turkish border late last November.
And the drivers Peter Thomas, Graham Quinn and Tony Quinn were jailed after being accused of taking part in an alleged export fraud.
Struggles
Now Jack, whose vehicles were subcontracted to Ralph Davies, has been forced to lay off both Graham and Tony Quinn as he struggles to make ends meet. He says : "I've only got one truck left and that can't pay all our wages.
"I paid their wages while they were in prison but it's not a bottomless pit. I've put them in touch with people looking for casual drivers and I'll take them on when I get the trucks back, but I can't even give them a definite date for that."
Tomorrow (28 January)) sees another hearing in Turkey when a local judge will decide whether to free the impounded vehicles.
Haulage boss Ralph Davies is having to stump up a £131,000 bank guarantee for the .! of the artics. It will be held by the ;1•1 authorities while the trial into the export fraud is heard, and returned iritish drivers are exonerated.
ies says : "We've got to put up the • or there's no way we'll get the trucks Ulers back.
nything goes wrong, or the drivers are guilty, then we'll lose that cash. We're hands of Turkish law, so who knows?" ingling over the trucks' release has [y• cost Davis and Jack a fortune in :ees—more than £10,000 and rising. s says : "Financially the whole on is not very good at all.
paying out all legal fees I'm losing out on vehicles which would usually be turning over about £2,000 a week."
But Davies is philosophical about the situation and is not allowing the ordeal to put him off working in Turkey: "The usual motto is once you hay been bitten by the snake, don't go back into the snake pit.
But we do a lot of work there and
4 I'm still sending drivers over," he says.
"We were all completely innocent but their law states any vehicles suspected of being involved in a crime can be confiscated."
Davies says that he will not get involved in loads of textiles again which were at the heart of the local police investigation.
Boxes of T-shirts were found to be under. loaded in a bid to qualify for greater export incentives from the Turkish Government.
"MI go back through Bulgaria now and pick up something there. And obviously I'll be telling all my drivers to be on their toes in Turkey," says Davies.
But Jack and his two drivers are vowing to never set foot in the country again. "There is no way I'd get involved with a Turkish run again. One experience like this is more than enough for anyone," says Jack.
Once the trucks and refrigerated trailers are safely back in this country both haulage bosses will be turning their attention to suing the Turks for compensation.
None of the drivers was ever formally charged and Davies and Jack are hopeful a complete exoneration during the court case will stand them in good stead for a compensation claim.
But sources in Turkey say the trial could last up to two years as companies and customs officials become embroiled in the complicated case.
Jack says: Maybe I will get compensation, but that possibility is so far in
the future I can't even think about it. I have bills to pay now.
"You read about firms going out of business through mismanagement and that's fair enough.
"But I could go down through no fault of my own," he concludes. "Everyone involved in this country is completely innocent and yet I could still be punished in this way. The whole thing is so unjust it is almost beyond words."
by Grant Prior