Fernyhough dozen fined
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• Twelve drivers employed by Cheshire haulier Stanley Fernyhough have been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £11,000, after pleading guilty to falsifying tachograph charts at Mold Crown Court.
The drivers, who each pleaded guilty to two specimen charges of making false entries on tachogiaph charts, were Kenneth Lloyd, of Price Avenue, Sandbach, fined £1,000; Stephen Allen, of Wetherby Close, Cheadle, fined £700; Glenn Ford, of Eros Crescent, Birches Head, Stoke-on-Trent, fined 2800; Edward Bennett, of Duddell Road, Srnallthome, fined 2750; Kevin Casselden, of Yorkhill Drive, Winsford, fined 2700; Anthony Taylor, of Close Cottage, Congleton Road, Mow Cop, fined 2600; Nigel Wardle, of South Bank Street, Leek, fined £750; David Hodgkiss, of Clynes Way, Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, fined 2700: Stephen Howe, of Gibson Road, Chesterton, fined 2600; Keith Symes, of Cottage Lane, Biddulph Moor, fined £500; Brian Hymas, of Heath Street, Chesterton, fined £500; and Paul Moody, of St Aiden Street, Tunstall, Stoke-onTrent, fined 2400. They were each ordered to pay 2250 towards the costs of the prosecution.
For the prosecution, David Halbert said the defendants had been part of an ingenious scheme to by-pass the drivers' hours legislation. A switch system had been built into the vehicles enabling the drivers to deactivate the tachographs. Lloyd, for example, had used the switch on 61 occasions on journeys between Cheshire and the South.
In mitigation, it was said that the drivers had had to break the rules to make up time because of their low-rate pay.
Fining the 12, Judge Morgan Hughes said that dodging the drivers' hours rules had serious implications for the safety of both themselves and other road users.
Seven other drivers and Fernyhough himself have yet to appear before the court.
Fernyhough, of Hilly Lees
Farm, Swythamley, near Macclesfield, denies conspiring with others to falsify tachograph charts, conspiring with others to steal grain carried in his vehicles, and making false declarations in order to obtain excise licences.
Five drivers, Anthony Smallwood, of Hutchinson Walk, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent; Phillip Harrison, of Rock House, Chapel Lane, Brown Edge, Stoke-on-Trent; Anthony Weaver,of Dunsford Avenue, Baddeley Green, Stoke-onTrent; Keith Cox, of Chapel Street, Mow Cop; and Christopher Bradshaw, of Coleridge Drive, Highfield Estate, Stafford; deny making false entries in tachograph charts, conspiring to make false entries in tachograph charts and conspiring to steal grain.
Two drivers, Stephen Hodgkinson, of Femeydale Avenue, Harpur Hill, Buxton, and Ronald Berresford, of Yew Tree Cottage, Flagg, Derbyshire, deny making false entries in tachograph charts and conspiring to make false entries in charts.