An instructor has admitted ripping off a group of truckers who paid who paid almost £3,000 for courses but never received the qualifications they had earned.
Exeter based Mark Johnson ran five days of courses for up to 17 HGV drivers which they needed to keep their licences valid.
The truckers were forced pay a second time to retake exactly the same courses because Johnson had misled them about his ability to log their work with the Driving Standards Agency.
Johnson had previously worked with a private agency which was authorised to certify that the drivers had completed the necessary hours of training.
He ran into trouble when he started running courses on his own on a freelance basis. He claimed to be a former traffic policeman and to be working with Marsh Barton based Wyvern Driver Training and Consultancy.
Johnson has spent 18 months denying the fraud but changed his plea on the first day of his trial at Exeter Crown Court after new evidence emerged.
Johnson, aged 49, of Gussiford Lane, Exmouth, admitted a fraud in which he made false representations when he offered training for the Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC).
Before the trial folded the jury were told how HGV drivers now need both a licence and a CPC, which is based on ongoing training.
Every trucker has to complete 35 hours of training every five years covering areas such as road safety, first aid and tachograph use.
Johnson organised one three day and one two day training sessions in April and June 2014 for which drivers paid a total of £2,913.
They expected the hours the clocked up on the courses would be uploaded onto an official website, run by a Government agency, and go towards the renewal of their CPCs.
Johnson took their money even though he had no way of uploading the hours, after ending an arrangement with a certified training company called Driver CPC4U, through which he had worked previously.
Miss Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said:"He acted dishonestly by not operating through CPC4U. He was taking money for courses from drivers who expected the hours to be uploaded but knew they would not be.
"These courses were run fraudulently and he has committed fraud towards the drivers."
The only witness to give evidence before Johnson changed his plea was Glastonbury Festival transport organiser Mrs Lauren Andrews, who met Johnson when he was running a course at the Bristol Rovers stadium complex in February 2014.
She arranged for him to run five days of courses after he told her he was a former traffic cop and gave her a business card showing he worked for Wyvern Training.
She turned detective after the 17 drivers who paid £2,913 discovered the hours had not been logged into the online system. She tried to get answers from Johnson for three months without success.
Johnson gave her a string of excuses in e-mails and texts in which he blamed a series of family tragedies, including the death of his mother and the serious illness of his newlywed wife.
Mrs Andrews went to the police after discovering that Johnson was not registered in his own name to deliver training and did not appear on the Companies House entry for Wyvern Training.
Exeter based Mark Johnson ran five days of courses for up to 17 HGV drivers which they needed to keep their licences valid.
The truckers were forced pay a second time to retake exactly the same courses because Johnson had misled them about his ability to log their work with the Driving Standards Agency.
Johnson had previously worked with a private agency which was authorised to certify that the drivers had completed the necessary hours of training.
He ran into trouble when he started running courses on his own on a freelance basis. He claimed to be a former traffic policeman and to be working with Marsh Barton based Wyvern Driver Training and Consultancy.
Johnson has spent 18 months denying the fraud but changed his plea on the first day of his trial at Exeter Crown Court after new evidence emerged.
Johnson, aged 49, of Gussiford Lane, Exmouth, admitted a fraud in which he made false representations when he offered training for the Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC).
Before the trial folded the jury were told how HGV drivers now need both a licence and a CPC, which is based on ongoing training.
Every trucker has to complete 35 hours of training every five years covering areas such as road safety, first aid and tachograph use.
Johnson organised one three day and one two day training sessions in April and June 2014 for which drivers paid a total of £2,913.
They expected the hours the clocked up on the courses would be uploaded onto an official website, run by a Government agency, and go towards the renewal of their CPCs.
Johnson took their money even though he had no way of uploading the hours, after ending an arrangement with a certified training company called Driver CPC4U, through which he had worked previously.
Miss Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said:"He acted dishonestly by not operating through CPC4U. He was taking money for courses from drivers who expected the hours to be uploaded but knew they would not be.
"These courses were run fraudulently and he has committed fraud towards the drivers."
The only witness to give evidence before Johnson changed his plea was Glastonbury Festival transport organiser Mrs Lauren Andrews, who met Johnson when he was running a course at the Bristol Rovers stadium complex in February 2014.
She arranged for him to run five days of courses after he told her he was a former traffic cop and gave her a business card showing he worked for Wyvern Training.
She turned detective after the 17 drivers who paid £2,913 discovered the hours had not been logged into the online system. She tried to get answers from Johnson for three months without success.
Johnson gave her a string of excuses in e-mails and texts in which he blamed a series of family tragedies, including the death of his mother and the serious illness of his newlywed wife.
Mrs Andrews went to the police after discovering that Johnson was not registered in his own name to deliver training and did not appear on the Companies House entry for Wyvern Training.
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