Outside the limits
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• A Manchester owner-driver who said he could not make a living legally has admitted to the falsification of tachograph charts and drivers hours offences Swinton, Manchester-based owner-driver Alan Blease was ordered to pay £930 in fines and costs when he appeared before Trafford magisir ates Blease admitted three falsification offences, one of failing to use a tachograph for the whole period he was driving and four of exceeding the daily driving limit. He also pleaded guilty to three offences of taking insufficient daily rest and one of failing to make entries on the centre field of a chart.
Prosecuting for the DO'r, John Heaton said that when Blease's artic was stopped in June there was no chart in the tachograph. Blease said that he had forgotten to put one in. He then produced 13 charts, three of which bore the name Peter Roy One chart had no name and all the charts were in the same handwriting Blease told the traffic examiner that he falsified the charts because the work he was doing could not be done within the drivers' hours limits.
The charts showed that Blease had driven for as long as 13 hours 32 minutes in a day and had taken as little as lairs consecutive rest.
Robert Hargreaves defending said Blease's work was largely the collection and delivery of containers to and from ports It was an extremely competitive business, and great pressure was put on small hauliers through subcontracting.
Rather than disappoint a customer when he was under particular pressure, Blease "got into bad ways". Fortunately there were no accidents or injuries.
Hargreaves said Blease was a healthy man who felt he could operate without difficulty with less than the required rest He had not believed he was at risk of causing an accident through fatigue.
The magistrates fined Blease .£780 and ordered him to pay £150 prosecution costs. They said he had committed a long list of offences which could have endangered life.