Jail for danger wagons bosses Mar 16 2005
By Garry Willey, The Newcastle Evening Chronicle
Shamed haulage bosses, William and Stuart Oliver, were today beginning jail sentences for putting profits before safety in a trucking scam.
Drivers at the family-run Northumberland firm skipped rest periods and stayed on the road way beyond European regulations.
The illegal practice gave the company a money-making edge over rivals. Jailing the father and son in charge, Judge Tim Hewitt said the move to flout safety laws had come from the top.
“There’s no doubt that at William Martin Oliver and Partners there was widespread and persistent disregard for regulations covering drivers’ hours and rest periods, and widespread persistent falsifying of tachographs to cover that up,” Judge Hewitt said.
"I’m satisfied this was a culture or a policy to disregard regulations which emanated from the bosses of the company.
“It’s a serious road safety risk giving rise to public danger from these huge 38-tonne vehicles.”
Stuart Oliver, 41, of Leariggs, Bardon Mill, near Hexham, was jailed for 18 months.
William Oliver, 72, of Carrsgate, Bardon Mill, was jailed for nine months. His wife Marion, also 72, was given a six-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months.
They were also ordered to pay costs totalling £587,499.
All three had denied conspiracy to make false entries on driver record sheets but were found guilty.
Judge Hewitt said he accepted all three were of previous good character.
But he warned: "Those who come to court in these circumstances, where serious issues of road safety are concerned, must expect serious consequences.
“This case is at the upper end of the scale.”
He said the trial had heard evidence of some drivers staying on the roads for 48 hours at a time and regularly having only four hours rest between shifts.
At earlier hearings, eight company drivers were jailed and 13 given community sentences for their part in the racket.
