Portadown, County Armagah, N Ireland, UK: Tacho offences lead to fines and director ban for Landmark Haulage
A temperature-controlled operator in Northern Ireland has been fined £8,700 for falsifying mileage and the amount of hours worked by its drivers. Landmark Haulage, based in Portadown, County Armagah, was fined following a targeted investigation.
On 29 November 2009 officers from the Driver & Vehicle Agency supported by the Northern Ireland Police discovered 12 vehicles with devices capable of interrupting the signals to the tachograph recording equipment. Analysis of the company’s records revealed that between October 2009 and November 2009 over 40,000 kilometres had not been properly accounted for.
At Craigavon Magistrates’ Court the company was fined £500 on each of 12 counts of producing, supplying and/or installing a device designed to interfere with the proper operation of tachograph recording equipment. It was also fined £150 on each of 10 specimen counts of making a false entry and £200 on each of six counts of failing to produce tachograph records.
Eight drivers had been dealt with by an earlier court and received combined fines totalling £2,900 for tachograph and drivers’ hours offences. The company’s directors Mark and Lorraine Somerville have been banned from holding a company directorship for 11 years.
Supt Muir Clark, head of the Northern Ireland’s police service’s road and armed support, said: “It is particularly disappointing that the haulage operator and its employees risked the lives of other innocent road users. I have no doubt that this joint operation has made our roads safer and hope that the court imposed fines and disqualifications will serve as a strong warning to others.”
