B'S Caught on 'islands tax'
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III Drivers' hours and tachograph offences, and running a vehicle at the wrong rate of tax, have cost Islay Crab Exports and two of its drivers £2,423.
The Isle of Islay firm's partners, James Monaghan and Neil Maceachern, and drivers Dugald McKerrell and William MacDonald, admitted the offences when they appeared before Basingstoke Magistrates.
The partners were fined a total of £915 with £90 costs for permitting drivers' hours offences and the use of a vehicle when the tachograph was not working correctly. They were ordered to pay £1,033.33 in back duty for using it at the wrong rate of tax.
McKerrell was fined £250, with £45 costs, for falsifying tachograph charts, using them when he knew they were false, exceeding the daily driving limit and taking insufficient rest. MacDonald was fined £50 with £45 costs for knowing using a false tachograph chart.
A further 60 charges against the four men were dropped by the prosecution.
Prosecuting, Edward Phillips said the offences came to light when a double-manned 38-tonne artic was stopped by the police because it seemed to be overweight. The vehicle had been taxed as a "small islands vehicle" at an annual rate of £150.
Defending, Andrew Woolfall said that the two drivers had started work in the ferry port and had driven on to the ferry and completed the ferry crossing before inserting a chart in the tachograph, as they had not thought they needed to record the ferry crossing.
WooIlan said that the firm had applied to renew the vehicle's excise licence when it expired at the beginning of June 1995.
The "small islands" taxation class did not come into force until July 1995, but the Glasgow VRO issued a "small islands" tax disc on 28 June, he added. The firm was told that the matter would he sorted out, but it had not been.