Judge orders Davies' charges to be dropped
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• Gloucestershire-based international haulage firm boss, Ralph Davies, will no longer have to stand trial after a judge ordered outstanding tachograph fraud charges to be dropped. The Cheltenham operator faced four charges of falsifying tachograph charts with intent to deceive. But last week, a Gloucester Crown Court judge ordered the charges to "lie on file" and not to be resurrected without special leave. Last year he was formally acquitted of five allegations of colluding with an employee to fiddle records relating to drivers hours during a trans-Europe haulage job. On that occasion, not guilty verdicts were entered by a judge, after the prosecution decided to offer no evidence.
Davies' defence asked the judge to order that large quantities of items, including documents and computer records, seized in police raids on Davies' home and business premises on Cheltenham's Kingsditch Trading Estate, should be returned to his client on the basis that they were protected by legal privilege.
The items were examined by the judge who ruled which should be returned and which should be retained by police.