Hours fine for Frenchman
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/Drivers' hours offences cost French ion-y driver Vincent Mougenet £1,500 in fines and costs when
he appeared before Coventry magistrates.
The magistrates rejected argtunent4 that they had no jurisdiction to hear the case because most of the driving had been done outside the UK. Mougenet then pleaded guilty to two offences of taking insufficient daily rest and one offence of exceeding the daily driving limit, The court heard that Mougenet's vehicle was stopped by police in Coventry on its way to deliver parts to the Peugeot plant. They found he had taken only 10 hours' rest in two days.
DOT Traffic examiner Dominic Green said Mougenet's tacho charts showed that on the first day he had only taken 6hr 25min rest. Between 06:00hrs on Tuesday and 14:00hrs on Wednesday, when his vehicle was stopped, Mougenet had taken only 3hr 35min rest.
Defending, Peter King said that Mougenet had left Alsace at 05:00hrs on the Monday. He had been delayed at Dover and was under pressure to reach Peugeot Talbot on time.
It was a new job and the pressure was on him — he had only been with the company, OTA, a little over a week. Mougenet was a young man without much experience and his employers should have helped him out more with advice about the drivers' hours rules.
The magistrates fmed Mougenet £1,350 with £150 costs.