Sacked drivers urged to claim
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by Karen Miles
• Truck drivers who lost their jobs in the late 1980s because of mistaken drinkdriving convictions are being encouraged to sue for compensation.
Manchester firm of solicitors Abney Garsden McDonald (AGM) is appealing to the hundreds of drivers who were convicted of drink driving offences in the Greater Manchester area from March 1987 until September 1988 and have since had their convictions quashed.
Sue Jervis of AGM says that of the 400 people who have had their convictions quashed so far, only around 100 have claimed compensation. The problems occurred when Greater Manchester police prosecuted drivers on results from faulty blood testing kits which used swabs containing alcohol.
In 1991 the then-home secretary Kenneth Baker decided to allow compensation claims. AGM has already secured £16,000 for a council waste disposal driver who was demoted to street sweeping when he was wrongly convicted because of one of these faulty blood testing kits.
The company has also won compensation for fork-lift and truck drivers.
Contact AGM on 0161 491 1205.
ID See Legal Bulletin in CM 30 July-5 August.