COURT REPORT
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£3000 Fine for Overweight Vehicle
Convicted on Series of Tachograph Offences
A County Antrim operator has been convicted at Belfast Magistrates’ Court and fined a total of £3000 after DVA enforcement officers stopped a 3 axle Scania articulated goods vehicle in combination with a 4 axle Faymoville trailer in the Larne area.
A County Armagh operator was convicted at Belfast Magistrates’ Court and fined a total of £2000 after DVA enforcement officers stopped a 3axle Scania heavy goods vehicle in the Belfast area.
Officers weighed the vehicle using the Department’s dynamic weighbridge and it was found to be overloaded on axle 2 by 890kgs on the maximum authorised weight and by 9280kgs on its gross train weight. The driver claimed a special types exemption but was unable to provide a current special types movement order.
Company Convicted on Multiple Offences A County Tyrone Haulage company has been convicted at Belfast Magistrates court and fined a total of £1200.
During an examination of the vehicle officers found that vehicle data from the tachograph had not been downloaded for a period of 796 days which was 706 days outside the 90 day requirement. In addition, officers found that the driver’s digital smartcard had not been downloaded for 69 calendar days, 41 days outside the stipulated 28 day requirements. Officers were unable to correlate the current days driving with records and a further in-depth investigation uncovered and removed an interrupter device (magnet) attached to the gearbox tachograph sender unit.
Failed to Take Daily Rest A County Antrim operator has been fined £1,000 at Belfast Magistrates’ Court which heard that when DVA Enforcement Officers examined a 3 axle Volvo articulated tractor unit in the Larne area they discovered a number of tachograph offences.
The conviction arose when DVA Enforcement carried out an in-depth tachograph investigation of vehicle records belonging to the company. During an examination of the records it was noted that data had not been downloaded from a tachograph in accordance with the relevant EU regulations. As well as a failure to download, the investigation also identified multiple drivers’ offences of failing to take daily rest, weekly rest etc. In addition, the operator failed to attend a formal interview with investigators.
Analysis of the tachograph data identified that the driver was fraudulently using a digital tachograph card belonging to the vehicle operator and that the operator had failed to download the driver card and the vehicle tachograph within the prescribed time limits allowed thereby failing to identify that the driver had failed to take minimum daily rest on a number of occasions.
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