Cleared on tacho time
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• The defence costs of Scans. brick-based MA Foreshaw are to be paid out of public funds after the company was cleared by Blackpool magistrates of using a vehicle when the tachograph was set at the incorrect time and of failing to produce records.
The allegations arose out of a road traffic accident in September 1996 when a vehicle belonging to the company and driven by Mark Formby collided with a cyclist. Formby was subsequently convicted of driving without due care and attention.
Constable John Blott, of Lancashire Police, said that when he examined the vehicle's tachograph he found the clock was showing the wrong time. He asked the company to produce Formby's tachograph records and when he examined the records he found that there were a large number missing.
Questioned by Andrew Woolfall, defending, PC Blott admitted there was no evidence to show that Formby had been working in the periods when records were missing.
He accepted he had only asked for Formby's records to be produced.
Arguing that there was no case for the defence to answer, Woolfall said the prosecution had to show the missing records had been there to be produced and there was no evidence to show any such records were available.
It was accepted that the tachograph clock was showing the incorrect time, but there was no evidence before the court that the company had been using the vehicle on the clay in question.