The removing of the card and carrying on is falsification of a record and normally results in being warned for prosecution. You should have left the card in, done what you needed then made a written record to ‘excuse’ it. If you’d done that it wouldn’t be a trip to court.
Of course if found guilty you will almost certainly also receive a suspension from a TC. I am sure the operator has already had a visit regarding this but that may be a visit to a TC if you are found guilty.
The magistrate will only pass it onto Crown court if they feel unable to deal with it due to technicalities (they don’t understand the charge) or they feel the maximum penalty they can issue isn’t sufficient (£2500) whereas The Crown court can go for £5000 or a custodial sentence as far as I know.
I would say with your one falsification offence it’ll stay at Magistrates and if you come across as honest and it really was a mistake it’ll be £450 ish. Of course DVSA will push for more
Unfortunately drivers just don’t seem to realise that taking the card out and carrying on is far more serious than the offence they’d commit with the card still in.
I would highly recommend you get legal help. Maybe your house insurance may cover it? Some do.
I spoke to a DVSA Enforcement officer friend and he gave the following information.
His advice is to attend and plead guilty as you definitely knew what you were doing and have probably already admitted so under caution to DVSA anyway.
If you do not attend and do not enter a plea expect around £440.00 fine plus costs of around £200.00 plus victim surcharge of £44.00 (10% of fine). This is the ‘average’ for a level 4 offence.
If you plead guilty but do not attend expect around 30% less on the fine and therefore slightly lower victim surcharge.
He also said that by attending and pleading guilty but putting your full story across including mitigating circumstances and your desperation to do the right thing etc - it is not unheard of for the fine to actually be less than the maximum roadside fixed penalty of £300. It all depends on the individual magistrate and their like/dislike of HGVs.
eagerbeaver:
Was it just a routine tug from DVSA Dozy? Or do you reckon they were tipped off to pull you?
I don’t know to be honest, probally will never no , would they know you’d drove for a 6/8 mins without a card in the previous evening 300+ miles ago , you would of thought not , but I just don’t know
Of course they would, its all held on the VDU, there would be missing data on your card, compared to the VDU.
The fact that you’re pushed to the point of disaster day after day, employer after employer, says 1 of 2 things to me.
a) you’re REALLY bad at picking employers
b) you’re a tear arse, drive to the limit 24/7, kind of numpty, that this industry could well do without.
So which is it?
1.your really bad at picking employers , I’m being charged with 1x offence , so if I’ve picked a bad employer in the past it would be a employer , not employers
2. The issue that day came from me being stuck on a building site for 4/5/6 hrs ( I’m struggling too remember exactly how long , and then not ending up with enough time too get parked up within my hours , so again I can’t see how being sat on a building site can be deemed as chasing about .
I’d spent all afternoon ringing , texting , emails being sent from depot to depot , but by the time I’d got out of there ( couldn’t drop tri , unit first into small yard with 8/9t concrete left on one side of a frame ) I was struggling too get out of central London and get parked up , what with Southwark bridge and then fire on a13 I couldn’t make it , I’d spent all afternoon banging my head against a brick wall , frustration , head gone etc , etc , I took my card out , drove 8/9 mins without card , then took 8hrs 45 break , stopped next day , parked up as insufficient daily rest , 13 hrs ( 5 my choice ) , even vosa chap said make sure it’s not just you who carries the can , now charged with 1 x falsifying record ( whether they’ve clumped the 2 together I’ve no idea , but that’s it 1x charge , or that’s what form says , reason I asked ? Is because I’ve never been done for this before , what does 1a or a1 mean , 4 etc
But as I say it’s one incident ( yes I know it makes good reading for some too say x5, x 10 etc ) , but it not , so as I say if it’s a bad employee it 1 bad employee , and as for tearing around it was the opposite , I couldn’t get moving .
Anyway that’s enough for me , believe what you like , I’ve got most of the answers I need from the helpful ones on here
How many times have you come on here complaining about not having time to get parked up etc? Only the other day you were asking if you’d get tipped somewhere in a hour or so, as your booking time was around an hour before you were due to be parked up
As others have said, you should have carried on with your card in, as the offence would have been far less than what you’re facing now. That’s by the by now though, you can’t undo it, at least you now know the seriousness of falsifying records, and hopefully will have learned your lesson.
shep532:
The removing of the card and carrying on is falsification of a record and normally results in being warned for prosecution. You should have left the card in, done what you needed then made a written record to ‘excuse’ it. If you’d done that it wouldn’t be a trip to court.
Of course if found guilty you will almost certainly also receive a suspension from a TC. I am sure the operator has already had a visit regarding this but that may be a visit to a TC if you are found guilty.
The magistrate will only pass it onto Crown court if they feel unable to deal with it due to technicalities (they don’t understand the charge) or they feel the maximum penalty they can issue isn’t sufficient (£2500) whereas The Crown court can go for £5000 or a custodial sentence as far as I know.
I would say with your one falsification offence it’ll stay at Magistrates and if you come across as honest and it really was a mistake it’ll be £450 ish. Of course DVSA will push for more
Unfortunately drivers just don’t seem to realise that taking the card out and carrying on is far more serious than the offence they’d commit with the card still in.
I would highly recommend you get legal help. Maybe your house insurance may cover it? Some do.
Thanks , a case if only I could turn the clock back , but of course I can’t , and the worst thing is I’ve always written on a printout , but frustration , madness took over for 8/9 mins and now 8 months later it’s still ongoing and I guess will still be ongoing at the end of court with a chat with the commissioner not far behind it , then who knows .
But yea card goes in Monday and never commes out until Friday/sat , but still have kittens when sent into tip with a couple hrs too spare , never take card out but don’t want to be in a position of having too write on a printout after going over my hours , ta
shep532:
The removing of the card and carrying on is falsification of a record and normally results in being warned for prosecution. You should have left the card in, done what you needed then made a written record to ‘excuse’ it. If you’d done that it wouldn’t be a trip to court.
Of course if found guilty you will almost certainly also receive a suspension from a TC. I am sure the operator has already had a visit regarding this but that may be a visit to a TC if you are found guilty.
The magistrate will only pass it onto Crown court if they feel unable to deal with it due to technicalities (they don’t understand the charge) or they feel the maximum penalty they can issue isn’t sufficient (£2500) whereas The Crown court can go for £5000 or a custodial sentence as far as I know.
I would say with your one falsification offence it’ll stay at Magistrates and if you come across as honest and it really was a mistake it’ll be £450 ish. Of course DVSA will push for more
Unfortunately drivers just don’t seem to realise that taking the card out and carrying on is far more serious than the offence they’d commit with the card still in.
I would highly recommend you get legal help. Maybe your house insurance may cover it? Some do.
Thanks , a case if only I could turn the clock back , but of course I can’t , and the worst thing is I’ve always written on a printout , but frustration , madness took over for 8/9 mins and now 8 months later it’s still ongoing and I guess will still be ongoing at the end of court with a chat with the commissioner not far behind it , then who knows .
But yea card goes in Monday and never commes out until Friday/sat , but still have kittens when sent into tip with a couple hrs too spare , never take card out but don’t want to be in a position of having too write on a printout after going over my hours , ta
The answer to this is in your own hands, no one is going to die if they don’t get the load until tomorrow. The decision about where tonight’s parking is going to be comes before whether there is going to be time to get back there after tipping if you unload today. So just tell whoever you work for that it won’t arrive until the next day.
I spoke to a DVSA Enforcement officer friend and he gave the following information.
His advice is to attend and plead guilty as you definitely knew what you were doing and have probably already admitted so under caution to DVSA anyway.
If you do not attend and do not enter a plea expect around £440.00 fine plus costs of around £200.00 plus victim surcharge of £44.00 (10% of fine). This is the ‘average’ for a level 4 offence.
If you plead guilty but do not attend expect around 30% less on the fine and therefore slightly lower victim surcharge.
He also said that by attending and pleading guilty but putting your full story across including mitigating circumstances and your desperation to do the right thing etc - it is not unheard of for the fine to actually be less than the maximum roadside fixed penalty of £300. It all depends on the individual magistrate and their like/dislike of HGVs.
Thanks shep , I always was going too attend , and plead guilty ( as I did when I filled in statement at vosa site ) also gave a full account as too what had happened that day and what led me too do what I did , so I guess they should have notes , but if not I can remember 99.9% of that day , thanks again
I’d like to make it clear that, in an untypical moment of empathy, I mistakenly thought that the fish supper we know and love as dozy was having a bit of a bad time. I now realise that as per usual, the person’s bottom we know as cozy is just being his usual lady garden self, and is not at all due to go to court. Well done sir. In the unlikely event that his wind up story is true, I hope the court throw the book at this end of a male appendage, and take as much of his misses’ savings as they can.
Oh, and yes, of course you can get to Aberdeen for 08.00am. just take your card out at Carlisle, and run the rest of the way 'only break’s… front bottom.
