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Falsified tacho costs driver £325
Page 19
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UA Co Antrim lorry driver has been ordered to
pay fines and costs totalling 325 after he admitted falsifying a tachograph chart before Chorley Magistrates.
William Surgenor, from Ballymena, initially denied the offence but changed his plea to guilty on his third appearance before the magistrates.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, John Heaton said that a vehicle belonging to Lame-based A Fry Transport and driven by Surgenor was stopped in a check at Preston.
Asked where and when he had started to drive. Surgenor had said that he could not remember. The tachograph chart showed that he had commenced driving at Fleetwood Docks and that the speed went straight up to 80km/h.
Surgenor had not been straightforward when interviewed, said Heaton. However, evIdence was obtained from the Fleetwood terminal manager of P&O European Ferries that he had come off the Irish Ferry straight onto the docks, where there was a 15mph speed limit, which was entirely inconsistent with the 80km/h speed trace on the chart.
For Surgenor, Ian Whalley said that there had been a problem with the tachograph head not locking. He had set off from Fleetwood thinking it was locked and it was somewhere on the M55 or M6 motorway that he realised it wasn't operating correctly. What Surgenor should have done was noted on the back of the chart the 22 miles he had covered without creating a record.
Whalley produced records from the company which showed that the tachograph lock had had to be freed, saying that that gave some credence to Surgenor's version of events.
The magistrates fined Surgenor £200 and ordered him to pay 1,125 prosecution costs.