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More drivers jailed from Hexham firm
Page 6
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• by Mike Jewell Two more drivers working for Hexham haulier William Martin Oliver and Partners have been jailed by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court.
Previously, eight drivers were sent to prison for two months each for a string of hours and tachograph offences (CM1-7 August).
In total 22 of the firm's drivers have been committed to Crown Court for sentence by the Leeds Magistrates: the remaining 12 were all ordered to do between 100 and 240 hours of community service.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate and Northumbria Police, Mark Laprell said that it was their case that the firm's management must have known its drivers were not complying with the hours limits as they were being paid for hours that were impossible to work legally.
Initially, the VI was told by the firm that the drivers' worksheets no longer existed and they only came to right when a search warrant was obtained and executed.
Outlining the offences, Laprell gave an example Nhere a driver had taken insufficient rest every day during a week. including taking only two hours' rest on one day.
Another had falsified his records on every day of a week, taking no rest at all on one day where there was a total duty time of 38 hours and reducing his rest to three-and-a-half hours on another day. He had also taken insufficient rest during seven consecutive weeks.
For 10 of the drivers, Mark Styles said they had been leaned on by the employer, rather than attempting to get rich from rule-bending.
If drivers did not do what they were asked they were given dirty work, old vehicles to drive or inconvenient start times, he added. The firm had been expanding rapidly at the time and it had not had the workforce to cover its contracts, he said.
Furthermore, said Styles, it was an area of the country where jobs were hard to come by and these men had been in a situation where they felt they were trapped.
Sentencing. Judge Bolton said all the drivers would probably have gone to jail if there had not been a delay bringing the case to court, which she blamed on a lack of co-operation by the firm.