21-year professional driving ban for HGV driver

A truck driver has been disqualified from professional driving until June 2038 after his driver card was used by another employee to commit serious offences.

Christopher Heydon, 49, of Market Street, Craven Arms, had his vocational driving licence revoked by industry regulator Kevin Rooney, following a conduct hearing in Bristol.

The Traffic Commissioner found Heydon, who did not attend the hearing, had allowed his driver card to be used by Jason Tehrane, who in turn created false records of his own driving and other work. It is illegal for a HGV driver to use another driver’s card.

Tehrane was convicted of nine offences of knowingly making a false record in May 2016, following an investigation by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).

The driving and other work recorded by Tehrane on Heydon’s card mainly hid daily rest offending. Drivers must take a daily rest period within each period of 24 hours after the end of the previous day or weekly rest period. 

In the period from May 7 to May 10, 2014, Tehrane was on duty for 85 hours with no qualifying daily rest period.

In a written decision confirming his orders, the Traffic Commissioner said: “Traffic commissioners regard the supply of a driver’s card to be used by another as serious as the false record itself. 

“The system of regulating drivers’ hours relies to a significant degree on trust and it is inescapable that Mr Heydon’s actions struck at the heart of that trust.”

Treharne, 45, of Derwendeg, Porthrhyd, also received a driving ban. Read more here.