AN HGV driver has been banned from driving professionally for nine months after a traffic tribunal found he had deliberately falsified driving records.

William Duguid, of Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, was called before the Deputy Traffic Commissioner in Edinburgh after government inspectors reported him for taking insufficient rest breaks and creating false records to conceal the fact that he was exceeding the legal number of hours behind the wheel.

The offences emerged after Mr Duguid was pulled over by inspectors from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in February 2013.

Out of 29 tachograph charts - which are used to record driving duty - examiners found a total of 42 offences, just over half of which were for false records.

Examiners found that the mileage records on the vehicle's odometer and the distance captured on tachographs did not match mileage manually recorded at the start of his next journey.

Mr Duguid said there had been instances where he left the vehicle at a delivery point where it may have been moved by another driver. He added that there had also been occasions when he had used the vehicle privately, but did not record this. But deputy traffic commissioner Richard McFarlane said Mr Duguid was not a credible or reliable witness and ruled that he was unfit to continue holding a vocational licence.

He noted Mr Duguid had also been reported in 2011 for driving without the correct entitlement.