One offence at a time
Page 14
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• A charge that Stoke-on-Trent owner-driver Philip Mansey left a chart in his tachograph for more than 24 hours has been dismissed because Mansey had already pleaded guilty to failing to have a six-year calibration check.
Both charges were brought under Section 97(1) of the 1968 Transport Act. John Backhouse, defending, argued that Section 97(1) created only one offence, which was committed either when no tachograph was fitted, if a tacho was not installed or used in accordance with the regulations.
Once a defendant had failed to clear any one of those hurdles, the offence was complete and subsequent failures were only relevant to the sentence. Nigel Walsh, prosecuting, maintained that each failure was a separate and distinct offence. In this case, where the calibration requirements had not been met and the driver had not used the tachograph correctly, it was proper to charge Mansey with two offences.
Nottingham stipendary magistrate Mervyn Harris said he had decided "with some hesitation" to accept the defence argument.
Mansey was fined i100 for the calibration offence and £100 for an insecure load offence. He was given an absolute discharge for using the vehicle with defective brakes.
Backhouse had argued that there was a proper system of maintenance and Mansey had not been aware of the fault when a pipe came loose.