A man has been jailed for four months after accepting cash kickbacks for issuing certificates to drive trucks and other heavy vehicles.
Former Linfox employee Michael Harrington, 65, this month pleaded guilty in the County Court to receiving secret commissions and giving false or misleading documents while employed at Laverton and Avalon.
His offending happened between 2006 and 2012.
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Liz Gaynor said Harrington’s offending, in terms of its potential effect, had been extremely dangerous.
“Because of you and other persons involved in this offending, hundreds of persons were able to drive heavy vehicles on the roads, some of the largest and potentially most lethal vehicles we see on our roads, in some cases, clearly, for many hours at a time on long haul drives, who were not properly tested,” she said.
The court heard Harrington’s actions had allowed people to drive vehicles weighing up to 62.5 tonnes (62,500 kilograms).
Judge Gaynor said Harrington received $28,560 for issuing 25 certificates of competency where the applicants were not required to undergo any driver training or testing.
The court heard Harrington wasn’t trying to get rich but took shortcuts due to work demands, which progressed into taking cash for looking the other way or helping to verify false documents.
It was further alleged Harrington deceived VicRoads by issuing 309 certificates
which falsely stated the holder had successfully completed training by Linfox testers. VicRoads identified 784 people who had been tested by Harrington since 2005 and notified them they had to be re-tested.
Judge Gaynor said 133 passed the re-test, 144 surrendered their certificate, 267 failed to make an appointment, 117 failed the re-test and 21 didn’t attend their appointment.
The remainder either held an interstate licence, had a licence that wasn’t current, were tested elsewhere or had already surrendered their certificate prior to the investigation.
