Driver ignored law and failed to take his breaks
AN HGV driver ignored safety laws and skipped mandatory breaks when driving for long periods in order to get home early to save his marriage.
Gareth Coomber, 40, broke the law and driving protocols when he bypassed a system to monitor drivers’ movements when working in order to avoid taking 45-minute breaks required by EU law after a driver had been travelling for four and a half hours.
While his employers Bridgend Biomass Ltd believed he was following the rules, Coomber regularly drove during breaks so he could get to his home in Pontyclun at an earlier time.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court was told EU driving regulations required commercial drivers to have a tachograph fitted to their vehicle in order to record speed, distance and driver activity.
Prosecutor Christopher Evans said Coomber had been removing his tachograph card from the unit while driving to give the impression he was taking breaks. This happened on 13 occasions between March 22 and August 17 last year.
On one occasion, on May 18, the defendant had been driving for 10 hours and seven minutes throughout the day with the maximum daily limit under EU law being 10 hours of driving. But he removed his card and drove for a further 57 minutes in order to get home.
On July 14 he drove for a period of two hours and 12 minutes after the card had been ejected in order to avoid taking a break.
The breaches came to light in August 2020 when the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) inspected Bridgend Biomass Ltd and found discrepancies between the recordings on Coomber’s tachograph unit and card.
Nine other employees of Bridgend Biomass Ltd were found with tachograph discrepancies and were dealt with at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court.
Mr Evans said there were no examples of dangerous or careless driving by the defendant.
Coomber, of Lon Elai, Pontyclun, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of offences committed under the Transport Act 1968, namely making false recordings or entries.
In mitigation Helen Newbold said the sole purpose of the offending was to “get home a little earlier”.
She said the defendant’s marriage had “fallen into a difficult patch” and he wanted to get home and speak to his wife in order to salvage their relationship.
She added that there was no financial gain to either Coomber or the company and the offence itself was unsophisticated with the defendant not appreciating the seriousness of what he was doing.
Coomber was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and to pay £750 towards court costs.