Convictions lead to lost repute
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Huddersfield haulier Robert Hirst has had his licence revoked for aiding and abetting drivers to falsify tachograph records.
Hirst, who traded as RA & PA Hirst, with a licence for 10 vehicles and 10 trailers, appeared before North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry.
In January he was convicted by the city's magistrates of 14 offences of aiding and abetting three of his drivers to falsify charts, and was fined a total of 27,700 and ordered to pay 24.175 costs (CM13-19 Jan).
For Hirst, Gary Hodgson maintained there was no direct evidence that the haulier had instructed the drivers to falsify charts. But the deputy IC indicated that he had to stand by the convictions.
Hirst conceded that, in the past, he had not checked tachograph charts as thoroughly as he should have and detailed the new checking system that was now in place.
Ruling that Hirst had lost his repute, and ordering that the licence revocation not take effect for 28 days, Hinchlffe concluded that the convictions were too recent to be disregarded. He indicated that if there were no further problems he might consider that Hirst had regained his repute by the end of the year.