Biker jailed on tacho charges
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/Anthony Biker, managing director of AW Biker, was jailed for nine months at Teesside Crown Court after being convicted by a jury of falsifying tachograph charts and aiding and abetting their falsification.
The Leyburn-based company, which trades as Bikers of Bedale, North Yorks, was fined £27,000 and Biker and his company were ordered to pay £15,000 costs between them.
The company and Biker had denied aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring 12 drivers and two fitters to falsify charts. Biker himself also denied three specimen counts of falsifying charts during the six-day trial (CM 21-27 May).
Last August the drivers and fitters involved admitted various offences of falsification, and were fined a total of £7,800.
Timothy Roberts, defending, claimed Biker had been unaware that the drivers had been falsify ing charts to cover up excess driving time in order to earn more money. He pointed out that the falsifications had only become apparent following a detailed and comprehensive examination by police officers.
Other drivers had signed weighbridge tickets on occasions when Biker had been driving as they happened to be in the cab.
On the occasion when there were two charts in Biker's name for different vehicles, in different places, at the same time, Biker had made a journey at short notice having already entered his name on a chart for the original journey.
Prosecuting, Paul Worsley QC said an investigation was prompted by complaints from other hauliers that they were always being undercut by Bikers. The Department of Transport went into the company in July 1988 and seized charts. The police were later involved.
Judge Helen Paling said Biker and his drivers had been taking part in a system which broke what they knew to be important regulations. Instead of trying to ensure his drivers complied with the law. Biker had been in it "up to the hilt", gaining a substantial financial advantage over his competitors.
In the early summer of 1988 there had been a complete and wholesale disregard of regu lations that prevented drivers from driving for more than 90 hours in a fortnight. The drivers had committed the offences to earn extra money. They had faced up to what they had done by pleading guilty. Judge Paling said that employers who took such a course must face an immediate prison sentence.