AN ALCESTER haulage firm, which is £130,000 overdrawn, has been fined

more than £4,000 after admitting it allowed drivers to commit motoring offences.

The charges involved driving without sufficient rest, failing to keep records and making false entries on tachographs, Miss Helen Bradin, prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, told Stratford Magistrates Court.

Jon Lewis Transport Ltd, of Arden Forest Industrial Estate, admitted 34 charges of permitting drivers to drive without sufficient rest and 13 counts of permitting drivers to fail to enter information on record sheets.

The firm admitted a further nine charges of having defective speed limiters on lorries. The firm was ordered to pay £676 costs apart from the £4,350 fine.

Four drivers were also dealt with by the court. Joseph Williams, 56, of Georgian Close, Alcester, was fined £150 with £200 costs after admitting three charges of driving without sufficient rest. Philip Davies, 44, of Shawbury Close, Winyates, Redditch, was fined £1,250 with £200 costs after admitting 19 charges of driving without sufficient rest and six of not using recording equipment in the proper way.

David Parkes, 28, of Oldbury Close, Church Hill North, Redditch, was fined £450 with £200 costs after admitting five charges of driving without sufficient rest, three of failing to enter information on a tachograph, two of having a defective speed limiter and one of failing to produce a tachograph sheet.

Another Jon Lewis driver, Bernard Harber, 58, of Corbett Close, Aston Fields, Bromsgrove, was fined £700 with £200 costs after admitting seven charges of driving without sufficient rest, three of failing to keep records and two of making a false entry on the tachograph.

Miss Bradin said the offences came to light during Vehicle Inspectorate checks on the tachographs - the equipment which records the lorry's miles and driving times.

She said the drivers had driven for more than the regulation four and a half hours without a 45 minute break and had put themselves and road users at risk.

"A lack of sufficient rest can cause accidents.

"The firm had not monitored the driving hours of the lorry drivers and they had told Vehicle Inspectorate officials that the firm had not given them formal training about their driving hours," said Miss Bradin.

David Tandy, representing the firm, said the company had 14 vehicles and had not been been prosecuted before in 13 years of business.

He said a new system of checking the tachographs was now in force to make sure there were no further offences.

"The firm, however, is in a perilous situation," he said. "The last 12 months were hard and the firm is overdrawn by £130,000. But the owner, Mr Lewis, loves his job and is putting in more hours."

One of the magistrates said: "We view the situation with concern because of the high number of offences."