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Operator of the year faces Litho charges

2nd December 2004
Page 6
Page 6, 2nd December 2004 — Operator of the year faces Litho charges
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A Garforth-based firm is to face prosecution for tacho offences — two months after it was crowned Operator of the Year. CM'S news team reports.

LIVE PROMOTIONS, the organisers of Truckfest, and fuel firm Shell are facing further embarrassment this week with the news that a firm they crowned Operator of the Year is to face prosecution for serious tacho offences.

Garforth-based Whitkirk Produce Co was awarded the title, which was sponsored by Shell, at Truckfest North-West in September. It capped a turbulent month for the firm which had already had several of its drivers prosecuted, with two sent to crown court for sentencing (CM 30 September).

Now the firm and one of its directors are to be prosecuted for failing to produce tachograph records and for aiding and abetting drivers to falsify tachograph records.

This was revealed at the drivers' sentencing at Leeds Crown Court, Kerr Morton, of Alnwick, pleaded guilty to 33 falsification offences, 14 of taking insufficient daily rest and six of taking insufficient weekly rest. He was ordered to do 100 hours of community punishment and fined £2,000 with £1,000 costs.

Robert Gibson, of Kelso, pleaded guilty to 11 offences of falsification, three daily rest offences and three weekly rest offences. He was given a conditional discharge for two years and fined £600 with £1,000 costs. Prosecuting for VOSA, Mark Laprell said there was a culture in the Whitkirk organisation, with 18 out of its 26 drivers being prosecuted: nine for falsifying tachograph records.

The tachograph records no longer existed.he added.The company had claimed they had been destroyed in two accidental floods but Laprell said the prosecution did not accept that explanation.

He added that the last column on the drivers' weekly timesheets was headed:"State jobs done over tacho hours." That, he suggested, was an invitation to the drivers to do work that was not recorded on the tachograph. Additionally, Morton had used a false name on some tachograph charts Neither the company nor the drivers had expected those documents to come into the hands of the enforcement authorities, Laprell told the court.

For the drivers, Sean Smith said the offences had been committed at the instigation of, and with the assistance of, the company.

Sentencing the two men, Judge Ian Dobkin said that it would be wrong to deprive them of their liberty despite the seriousness of the offences, which seemed to have been done with the encouragement and connivance of their employers.

In a statement Live Promotions director Bob Limming says Whitkirk Produce had been open and honest about its problems, "They reassured us that the drivers and management responsible were no longer with the company," he adds.

"On consulting our chiefjudge he felt there was no reason to disqualify them from the competition. I would emphasise that, in recent conversations with the senior judge, he stands by his decision."

Limming stresses that Shell, although a sponsor of the award, was at no point involved with its judging. It is understood that Shell is now reviewing its association with the award.


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