Interrupters cost £1,105
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A haulier who fitted tachograph interrupter switches to four of his trucks and instructed his drivers to use them has been fined 21,050 with 155 costs. When lorwerth Williams, trading as 10 Williams Road Haulage, of Tefan, Carmel appeared before the Caernarfon magistrates he pleaded guilty to 25 offences of falsifying tachograph charts and two offences of aiding and abetting two drivers to falsify tachograph charts.
The two drivers, Richard Pritchard, of Penygroes, and Derwyn Roberts, of Llanllyfni, were each fined 2350, with 155 casts for falsifying tachograph records. Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, Peter Egan said the offences were discovered by a team of traffic and vehicle examiners.
The tachographs had been doctored by Williams using a diagram he was given by a fellow trucker in a transport cafe in Chester. Tachograph switches had been fitted, enabling the drivers to carry on working when the records showed they were resting.
One of the switches was hidden inside a vehicle's cigarette lighter-its use also over-rode the speed limiter.
Defending, Lewis Jones said that the tachographs had been switched off when the drivers were stuck in traffic or had run out of hours when they were close to home.
There might have been a small financial gain to Williams in not having to pay overnight allowances, Jones added, but the tachographs were really switched off so the drivers could get home to their families.