West Wales haulage firm Mansel Davies has been fined £380,000 for forging lorry maintenance records.

Mansel Davies and Son Limited, based in Llanfyrnach in north Pembrokeshire, received the fine at Swansea Crown Court today after pleading guilty to 19 offences of forgery and counterfeiting maintenance records from October to December 2017 at an earlier hearing.

The company will also have to pay £120,000 in court costs.

Jonathan Phillips, 28 of Mynachlog-ddu who was an administrative assistant at the company, was also given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years and has been ordered to pay £1,500 costs after pleading guilty to forging maintenance records.

The sentencing follows an investigation by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

The DVSA found the company was forging its lorry maintenance records to suggest it was carrying out its regular full vehicle examinations to meet the requirements of its operator licence.

A handwriting expert identified that one person within the company was writing the false records.

DVSA’s head of national enforcement, Caroline Hicks said: “DVSA’s priority is to protect everyone from unsafe drivers and vehicles.

“This large company forged safety documents to deliberately avoid regular maintenance checks on their vehicles, this put the public and their employees at risk.

“We always pursue operators and push for the toughest penalties where there’s evidence they are cutting corners at the expense of road safety.”