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Vlulti-offence man says heavy penalty
Page 19
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WEST MIDLANDS haulier was found guilty by Cannock gistrates on April 29 of 29 offences causing drivers to break the ars records and distances regulations. He has beeil fineda—idiasi £298 with £300 costs.
a March, Willenhall operator 3 n Samuel Squire, trading as Aires Transport of Willenhall,
s cleared of 21 charges of 'sing drivers to make false ords (CM, March 21). In Febry, fines and costs totalling 315 were imposed on the five fers involved (CM, February
or the prosecution Mark Matws said that the offences olv.ed journeys between a lenhall radiator factory and Leyland Vehicles factory at hgate in West Lothian. Obvations had revealed a bla t disregard of the regulations. In one day alone four of the t drivers had made false tords and exceeded their trs, and Mr Squire must have twn what was going on it was med.
.1 evidence, Mr Squire said drivers were normally olved in three round trips a ak. They had been asked to nply with the regulations, and checked their records each .ak. He had not been aware t the drivers were working exsive hours, but as soon as the .nces came to light he arged for the vehicles to be tipped with tachographs.
a driver filled in his log .ets wrongly there was no way he could know that, he claimed.
Questioned by the prosecution, Mr Squire said drivers who committed offences were first cautioned then suspended. He claimed he had never had cause to suspend a driver and had only cautioned a driver once. He was not aware of any convictions against the drivers in other courts. There was no bonus scheme to encourage drivers to carry out additional journeys.
Defending, Alan Bentley said that as the distance between Willenhall and Bathgate was over 450km (280 miles), a lay-by at Shareshill was used as a staging post where loaded trailers were picked up by the longdistance drivers.
As a result Mr Squire rarely came into contact with the driv ers and there was nothing in the records themselves to suggest anything wrong. The drivers had gone out of their way to fabricate records that would get past Mr Squire, the police, and the traffic examiner on first examination, it was claimed.
The vehicles had been driven to suit the driver's own end, said Mr Bentley. One of them had admitted he had come straight back from Bathgate because he though his wife was being unfaithful and wanted to "catch her at it."
The court held that Mr Squire had failed to carry out sufficient checks. He was fined £10 on each of eight charges of failing to cause current records to be kept; £12 on each of 14 charges of causing drivers to exceeds their hours; E5 on each of four charges of causing drivers to exceed 450km in a day; and £10 on each of three charges of causing drivers to have insufficient rest.