Metz warned about hours
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• A Blackburn haulier escaped with a warning after admitting that he falsified tachograph charts to carry on driving because he was short of money. North Western LA Martin Albu had been considering action against the six-vehicle licence held by Gary Metz, trading as GJM Haulage.
Metz pleaded guilty to 15 offences of chart falsification, which all related to when he had been driving himself. He bought a new vehicle in 1991 and had only had it for three weeks when it was involved in a fatal accident in Spain. The vehicle was off the road for seven months and he nearly went under due to the resultant financial problems. Rather than let down his customers, and the people to whom he owed money, he decided to work as much as he could.
The missing mileage amounted to 200km at the most, said Metz. He drove without a chart in the tachograph at the end of the day for about an hour. It had not really been for profit but to clear
the debts arising from the Spanish accident. He was still waiting for the Spanish insurance company to pay out. There was no question of him having encouraged his drivers to do the same.
Metz agreed that he had been exceeding the drivers' hours limits, but said he had not driven illegally for more than an hour.
But he agreed that the 15 offences were specimen offences of a pattern stretching over a long period of time.
After the LA had pointed out that one of Metz's drivers had also been convicted of tacho offences, IVIetz said the driver concerned was only with him for two weeks. The offences came to light when the driver was stopped for drinking and driving, after going for a drink in his tractor unit without a tacho chart.
Questioned about convictions for VED offences and the payment of a number of mitigated penalties, Metz said some involved the use of tandem-axled trailers in error when the tractors were taxed at the concessionary 3+3 rate. Stickers were placed in the cabs telling the drivers that tandem-axled trailers must never be pulled. A driver had twice taken an untaxed vehicle out; once after the vehicle he had been allocated had been blocked in and once when it failed to start. All three vehicles in possession were fully taxed. He now had three full-time drivers and he worked solely in the office.
Warning Metz that he must run his business properly in the future, Albu said that the licence expired in January 1996, so Metz had two years to prove himself.