Alison Snaith given suspended sentence and community service for creating false tachograph records
On April 21, 2015, those who pleaded guilty to a number of offences in the trials of various employees of Howard Snaith & Partners were sentenced at York Crown Court. This follows the collapse of a trial in Newcastle Crown Court, where many defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy to create false Tachographs records.
The prosecution on behalf of the DVSA admitted that the costs of the trial were approaching £1m, and they were unlikely to recover the majority of this in view of how the trial ended. In fact, the court allowed DVSA to recover only £1,750 of costs. The defence is reported to have spent a figure in the region of £2m.
The trial judge further went on to criticise the disclosure process undertaken by the DVSA during the interview process.
Seven drivers had previously pleaded guilty to charges of knowingly making a false record with two drivers pleading guilty to conspiracy to create false records. Sentences ranged from short suspended sentences with elements of community service, to fines of up to £1,000. The trial judge accepted that on many occasions the drivers were falsifying for their own benefit and not that of the operator.
In mitigation for the operator and the partner, Tony Cross QC stated that the offending took place nearly five years ago during a time in which Alison Snaith was suffering with breast cancer. The operator was now compliant and had been quite shortly after the DVSA raid as evidence by the DVSA compliance assessment.
The operator said it has lost significant contracts as a result of this trial and would need to make 16 people redundant. The costs to the operator and the public purse is estimated to be in the region of £3-4m.
The DVSA had further chosen to restrain the assets of the operator, preventing it from trading for 10 days until the restraint order was varied before the court. As a result of the trial collapsing, there is an application for the DVSA to pay costs to the operator for the restraint order proceedings.
Alison Snaith was handed a eight-month jail term suspended for two years and 180 hours of community service for pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice. The operator said that Mrs Snaith had foolishly produced four Tachographs to DVSA Officers which replicated placement journeys made by her and another driver after the original Tachographs had been lost.
Scott Bell of Backhouse Jones Solicitors said on behalf of the company that: “Mrs Snaith and the operator now wish to move on with their lives and rebuild their business after a highly stressful and upsetting four years.”
