Almost half of the trucks checked by Essex Police in the first half of this year had mechanical defects, leading to fines of almost £100,000 in total, the force has revealed.
Between January and 30 June, Essex Police and VOSA stopped 1,900 lorries on the M25, M11, A12, A13 and the A120. Of these 907 had mechanical defects, of which 497 were so serious the HGVs were prohibited from moving until repaired.
A total of 10,991 drivers' hours offences were discovered, and in 112 of the more serious cases drivers were prohibited from going further until they completed enforced rest breaks. One German trucker was found to have worked 12 days without a break, and on one of those days he worked 22 hours in a day.
In addition, 63 lorries were seized after it was found their drivers either had no insurance or did not have valid driving licences. A further 302 offences were detected, such as overloading or dangerous loads.
The force collected graduated fixed penalties of £99,430 from all the offences detected.
Pc Dave Gorbutt, one of Essex Police's commercial transport investigators, says: "Despite all the rules and regulations which are in place for safety reasons, we never cease to be amazed at the way lorry drivers continue to try to flout the law."
The regular roadside checks are carried out under Operation Mermaid, a national policing initiative, to take dangerous vehicles off the roads.
Year: 2014 | Body Type: Curtainsider | Cab Type: Day | Registration: SP64 NZC | Mileage: 291,407 km | Power: 250 bhp
Year: 2012 | Body Type: Tipper | Cab Type: Crewcab | Registration: SN12BHY | Mileage: 217,712 km | Power: 2,998 bhp
Year: 2020 | Body Type: Tractor unit | Cab Type: Sleeper | Registration: WH70 FBY | Mileage: 933,615 km | Power: 520 bhp
