Suspended for tidy) offences
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A trio of drivers from a London-based company had their HGV licences suspended after a public inquiry was told how they had been convicted of falsifying tachograph records.
Welsh Traffic Commissioner David Dixon heard how the three employees of Woodwaste Services, based in Miii Hill, North London had between them clocked up a string of serous motoring offences.
Traffic examiner Geoffrey Whitley told the hearing at Welshpool that the company's vehicles were being parked at premises in Chirk, near Wrexham, during the weekend. He had become suspicious after stopping a vehicle driven by Simon Highfield.
An examination of tachograph records revealed that as well as Highfield, two other drivers—David Hughes and John Bennett—had regularly falsified their tachograph records over a period of three months, They had also driven for excessive periods, taken insufficient rest and driven when the speed limiters of their vehicles were not working, Whitley told the inquiry.
Bennett and Hughes were subsequently fined by Wrexham JPs, but the bench considered the 14 offences of falsification by Highfield so serious that it sent him to Crown Court for sentencing, where he was given a suspended prison term and fined (CM24-30 May).
In mitigation, Bennett told the TC that he had been relatively inexperienced at the time of the offences, having been driving lorries for only 18 months. Meanwhile, his colleague Hughes insisted that there had been a cult of illegal driving at the time.
However, the TO clearly felt that action needed to be taken. He suspended Highfield's HGV driving licence for six months, Hughes' licence for three months and Bennett's licence for six weeks.
The TO was also concerned that Woodwaste Services was based in his traffic area, and not in the South Eastern and Metropolitan area, where it holds an 0-licence.