A WESTON coach firm has been fined thousands of pounds after admitting a string of offences relating to drivers’ working hours.

Bakers Coaches Ltd – operating as Bakers Dolphin Coach Travel, based in Locking Road – and 11 of its drivers appeared in the dock at North Somerset Courthouse.

People who drive commercial coaches are subject to strict conditions on working hours to stop them experiencing lapses of concentration through fatigue.

Magistrates heard Bakers admitted breaching those rules on 11 occasions in 2010 by failing to ensure drivers’ hours were properly monitored and recorded.

The firm was fined �5,000 and ordered to pay costs totalling more than �900.

Drivers from Weston, Winscombe, Worle, Highbridge, Bridgwater, Burnham and St Georges also faced magistrates to answer individual charges.

The 11 drivers – 10 men, and one woman, aged between 34 and 72 – admitted 30 charges, ranging from failing to take proper rest breaks to falsifying their records.

Between them, they were ordered to hand over more than �5,000 in fines and costs.

Five of the drivers were also subjected to a 12-month conditional discharge by the court.