Springwood Trading loses licence appeal
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Having its O-licence revoked for not telling the TC about a director’s previous convictions, haulier loses appeal
By Roger Brown
SKIP OPERATOR Springwood Trading – which had its O-licence revoked for failing to inform the trafic commissioner’s (TC) ofice about the convictions of its director for illegal waste offences – has lost an appeal to win it back.
Upper Tribunal judge Mark Hinchliffe also upheld the March decision of Elizabeth Perrett, North Eastern deputy TC, to disqualify the director of the Todmorden, West Yorkshire-based business, Mark Butterworth, for 12 months.
In May 2010, Butterworth was convicted at Bradford Crown Court of 11 offences of illegal use of a waste transfer site. He was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for 12 months, 100 hours’ unpaid work and given a curfew – 10pm to Gam – for three months with an electronic tag. Neither Springwood nor Butterworth notiied these convictions to the TC’s ofice.
In July 2010, VOSA conducted a maintenance investigation into the irm – authorised for ive vehicles, with one in possession. It was marked unsatisfactory due to no proper periodic safety inspection records being made, and the alleged failure of the company’s vehicle to achieve a pass at annual test.
The following month, a trafic examiner made an unannounced visit to the irm’s yard and met Jason Butterworth, Mark Butterworth’s brother.
Jason said his brother was no longer a director of the company and that he was “thinking about taking it over” himself. However, the TC’s ofice had not been notiied of any change of director.
In its grounds of appeal, Springwood said Mark had not had any dealings with the company since 19 May 2010 when he had resigned as a director. It claimed that Jason had become a director and had “iled the relevant paperwork with Companies House”.
However, the TC’s ofice said it had not been informed of any resignations at the business in 2010.
The tribunal was also told that Mark had called a vehicle examiner on 30 September 2010 to say its vehicle had passed its annual test. This appeared to be inconsistent with Springwood’s argument that Mark had nothing to do with the business since May 2010.
Hinchliffe said the situation regarding who was in control of the company had been “extremely unsatisfactory” .
He added: “We conclude that the DTC was right to ind that Mark Butterworth had not ceased to have control of the irm, or, if he had, then this was a very recent development and Jason Butterworth had not, at that time, taken over. Her indings in relation to Mark Butterworth cannot be faulted.
“A private company must have a director, and a company holding an operator’s licence must keep the TC informed of any changes in directors.”