Fredrick Haintz, 48, faced Horsham Magistrates’ Court on nine charges on Wednesday after being pulled over at Dimboola in September. 

Haintz lives on a farm outside Ballarat. 

Prosecutor Senior Constable Matt Haughton said police stopped Haintz and inspected his work diary, finding a number of violations. 

The breaches happened between June and September last year.

Senior Constable Haughton said under the law, drivers of vehicles with a gross load mass of more than 12 tonnes were only allowed to work 12 hours each day, with seven hours of rest required.

When intercepted by police, Haintz was transporting pigs from Bridgewater, near Bendigo, to Murray Bridge. 

Haintz was charged with two counts of only resting for 6.5 hours and three counts of working more than 12 hours in a day.

On two occasions he failed to record his odometer readings properly. 

Senior Constable Haughton said he failed to store records in the correct place and had not removed certain entries from the book within the 21-day period as required.

Haintz’s defence said despite the number of charges the defendant had a fantastic track record on the road.

“He’s been driving trucks more than 30 years and has estimated he’s been picked up for log book checks once a month in that time,” the defence said. 

“This is the first time he’s faced court for a breach.

“He’s been someone we would want to see on our roads driving trucks.”

The defence said in the 30 years Haintz had been driving, he had received only one low-level speeding fine.

Magistrate Mark Stratmann agreed Haintz had been a compliant driver and operator for a long time. 

“In a sense it’s remarkable someone who drives a heavy vehicle for so many years has only had one speeding fine, which was dismissed by the court,” he said.

Mr Stratmann also said he was sympathetic that, on one occasion where Haintz breached his rest requirement, he had legitimate family concerns to face and was in a hurry to attend to that.

Haintz told police the reason for the breaches came from a mix of oversight, being sick of waiting for the rest time to elapse and being confused by the changing time zone when travelling across the South Australian border. 

The defence said a number of the charges, especially to do with record keeping, were minor.

Mr Stratmann fined Haintz $1500 without conviction with statutory costs of $199. 

He said if Haintz returned to court for similar offences the fines would be significant.