Crowther tachograph fines cut in half
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• Shropshire operators G G Crowther 8z Sons, Crowthers Animal Livestock Haulage and Lionel Burgoyne, trading as W Burgoyne & Sons, who were fined £7,500 in November after 7,500 tachograph charts went missing, have had their fines halved on appeal to Shrewsbury Crown Court.
in November the Ludlow magistrates fined G G Crowther & Sons £3,000 after the company admitted 20 offences of failing to produce tachographs records; Crowthers Animal Livestock Haulage was fined £2,700 after admitting nine similar offences and Burgoyne was fined £1,800 after admitting six offences (see CM, November 22).
For the prosecution, C H Duman said that after a driver was found to be falsifying charts in February 1986, a request was made for the production of the charts for January. When a traffic examiner called to collect them, however, he was told they had all been put into a filing cabinet and that they had been stolen. When a subsequent request was made for 12 months' records, it was said that they had also been stolen as they had been put into the same filing cabinet.
For the three operators, J J Cavell said they were in effect one operation. He argued that overall the level of fines was very high for what was now a small operation — it was a lot of money for an operator who had been reduced to 10 vehicles.
Judge Roberts said the fines had been on the high side.