Carlisle court jails haulage bosses who masterminded tachograph scam
By Phil Coleman
Last updated at 13:31, Tuesday, 03 May 2011
Two haulage firm bosses who ran a massive tachograph scam have been jailed.
Related: Thirteen drivers admit faking records after ■■■■■■■ police probe into haulage firm
And a Carlisle judge has commended the work of two ■■■■■■■■ police officers whose two-year investigation led to jail sentences being handed out.
Patrick Boyle, 64, pressurised drivers at his firm Boyle Transport Limited into fiddling their tachograph records, which ensure truckers do not spend too long at the wheel.
After admitting conspiring with others to make false tachograph records, he was jailed for two years.
His son Mark, 35, who worked with his father, admitted the same offence. He was jailed for 18 months.
The men, who ran their firm from Carnlough, Newry, Northern Ireland, were disqualified from running, setting up, or managing a company for five years.
Judge Peter Hughes QC, sentencing at Carlisle Crown Court, also imposed suspended four-month jail terms on 13 of the lorry drivers involved, and two three-month terms — one of them suspended — on two other drivers.
The court heard how Boyle senior had frequently threatened to sack drivers who were reluctant to falsify their tachograph records.
The scam was eventually uncovered after police officers stopped several of the firm’s lorries in Penrith.
As he concluded the case, judge Hughes told the father and son: “In my judgement, you flagrantly and persistently circumvented the drivers’ hours regulations for your own commercial purposes. Together, you operated a system of deception.
“You equipped your vehicles and your drivers with the means to alter their tachograph records. You imposed unreasonable expectations on your drivers, expecting them to undertake journeys which would simply have been impossible without breaking the regulations.”
They encouraged the offences by paying by the trip rather than by the hour, and by telling drivers they would be replaced if they refused to falsify driving records.
The judge commended the ■■■■■■■ police officers involved in the two year investigation: Sergeant Graeme Hodgson, and PC Andrew Ivison, as well Stephen Davidson, Pamela McGhee and James Marshall, who work for the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA).
The judge said: “In my view, it has been a very important investigation.”
Drivers who falsify records should expect to lose their licence, he said. Tachograph offences not only risk the safety of other road users but give offenders an unfair advantage over competitors.
After the case, Sgt Hodgson welcomed the sentences and judge’s comments.
He added: “The laws about drivers’ hours are there to improve road safety and people who try to circumvent those laws are playing with people’s lives.”
The 15 drivers involved previously admitted falsifying tachograph records.
Three of them — James Aird 48, of Mountblow Road, Clydebank; Stefan Metthias Mainka, 43, of Kerr Drive, Glasgow; and Wilfred Brydon Howat 66, Grieve Walk, Heathhall, Dumfries — got four months’ jail suspended for two years, with 150 hours’ community service.
David Chapman, 43, of Billhazelton, Kirkpatrick Fleming, got three months’ jail suspended for a year, with 100 hours’ community service.
Leslie Robert Marshall, 50, of Stonefield Road, Blantyre, Glasgow, got three months’ jail concurrent to a sentence he is currently serving.
The following defendants were given four months’ jail, suspended for two years, with 150 hours’ unpaid work: Andrew Bain,63, Coronation Place, Garthcosh, Glasgow; John McKieve Barrow, 42, Scavaig Crescent, Glasgow; Alexander Bell, 54, Stuich Lochearnhead Lodge, Lochearnhead, Perthshire; Andrew Boyce, 51, Penilee Terrace, Glasgow; William Brophy, 62, Fraser Street, Cleland, Motherwell; Christopher Jeffrey Daniel,43, Longtail Cottage, Middleton Tyas, Richmond, Yorkshire; James Fletcher Drury, 43, Mill Walk, Cambuslang, Glasgow; James Miller, 39, Kerr Drive, Glasgow; Johnathon William James Orr, 45, Cunninghame Road, Kilbarchan, Johnstone, Renfrewshire; and Graham Edward Pier, 52, Coleman Crescent, Ramsgate, Kent.
First published at 11:24, Tuesday, 03 May 2011
Published by newsandstar.co.uk