An owner-driver from Bolton was fined 21,290 1 after pleading
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guilty to two offences of falsification and five offences of using a tachograph chart with intent to deceive. Manchester magistrates also ordered Steven Mann to pay £100 costs,
Mann admitted that he had not used a tachograph chart to record movements on and off ferries, and that when the charts had shown full-scale deflections he had pulled the tachograph fuse to stop it recording so that his records would look consecutive while he continued to drive. He had twice wound on the clock so his records looked as if he had taken a full daily rest period when he had caught an early ferry.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, John Heaton said the offences had come to light during a routine check on Mann's tachograph charts.
Mann said he had never had an accident and did not drive when he was tired, The offences had occurred last year during the French truckers' blockades, There were also difficulties with the ferry crossing so he had to use the Zeebrugge route, which took 4.5 hours, and he had pulled the fuse to make the record appear legal.
Eastern European drivers, who were prepared to work for 170 a month, were taking a lot of the work, said Mann. He had made no profit as an owner-driver over the past two years and had been living on his wife's earnings.
The previous summer in France he had had to put up with his tyres being slashed and windscreen smashed.
He had also had to work for a particularly unscrupulous company which had given him grounage jobs to do, and if the deliveries were not made on time they were slow in paying him.
That company still owed him £8,000. He had been expected to do 12 to 15 drops abroad by Tuesday and to be back in England by Wednesday for another trip abroad.