Tax forgers attack the heart of trust
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ATEVER the reason behind an offence, an operator engaging in gery cannot be described as being of good repute, the Scottish nsport Tribunal has ruled.
t has dismissed an appeal by H Spence, of Laurencekirk, erdeenshire, against Scottish ensing Authority Hugh McNara's decision to revoke the mpany's standard national erator's licence, and his ding that the company was t of good repute.
Most of the convictions and hibitions which caused Mr Namara to consider revoking licence were of a mundane ture.
But the company also was ed £75 at Stonehaven Sheriff urt on October 9, 1979 for rgery or fraudulent alteration a vehicle excise disc, by using car disc on a lorry, and, again, September 2, 1980 the same iurt fined the company £15 for isuse of a registration plate.
It was these cases which • ompted Mr McNamara to reark that they hit at the very heart of the trust which the country ought to have in hauliers, and added: "It's all part of an ambience I hold very dear, and I think most operators do elsewhere."
Mr McNamara told the company that he could not overlook the convictions and the lesser prohibitions, saying "They give me the impression that people who are prepared to ignore the law in these offences are not the kind of people needed in the industry."
At the time of that hearing, Alexander Phillip, for Spence, drew attention to the case of WK
Transport (CM, December 13, 1980) in which a forged test certificate could have put road safety at risk, and said the Spence convictions were examples of foolishness rather than serious wrongdoing.
But the Tribunal was no more convinced of that than Mr McNamara, and commented: "We find ourselves unable to say that a haulier who, for whatever reason, commits offences of this character is of good repute.
"The fact that he has paid the penalty imposed on him by law does nothing to restore his reputation. In our view, the LA was fully justified in his finding that the appellant was not of good repute."