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Second time around tacho cheat is jailed
Page 12
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• by Mike Jewell A Manchester truck driver has been jailed for three months at Liverpool Crown Court for falsifying tachograph records.
Benjamin Stafford was first caught in September but gnored the impending prosecu:ion for those offences and was aught for a second time just Ive months later.
Stafford, who is employed 3y Co Monaghan haulier Gerald VicElvaney, was sent to the Drown Court for sentencing 3fter pleading guilty to 15 Ifences of falsification before he City's magistrates.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle nspectorate, Mark Smith said hat the first 13 offences came o light after Stafford's vehicle vas stopped in a check on the lainford bypass last ieptember. The distance traces lid not match with the odomeer readings, with between 47 Ind 320km unaccounted for.
On each occasion Stafford lad either used a second chart vhich he had not produced or lad run without a chart in the achograph.
The remaining two offences ;ame to light when Stafford's 'elide was stopped in a check in the M65 at Preston in ebruary, said Smith. On that Iccasion it was clear that lafford had interfered with le tachograph so that it recorded rest when he was actually driving.
For Stafford, Tim Deal said that he had felt under great pressure from McElvaney's customers and he had had to deal with ferry crossings and timed deliveries. He had committed the offences simply because he was trying his best for his employer and his Customers despite a lack of sympathy over the pressures of his heavy workload.
Deal also blamed supermarket FIDCs for the pressure on some occasions as Stafford had been made to wait for up to four hours to tip, despite having to arrive within a 30minute window.
Stafford had been foolish and dishonest but had not been reckless about road safety, said Smith, and he had not gained financially from the offences, which were relatively isolated.
Jailing Stafford, Judge Clarke said that he was sending out "a message to the haulage fraternity and the brotherhood of truckers" that these types of offences needed a deterrent sentence.
In this case the situation had been aggravated by the second set of offences, which were committed in full knowledge that he was going to be prosecuted for the first ones. That showed both determination and defiance, said Clarke.
He concluded that the dangers that could arise from tired drivers were graphically illustrated by the Selby rail disaster.