Rejected haulier launches revenge attack on the RHA
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• by Melanie Hammond An ex-haulier who was named in a public inquiry as unfit to hold an Operator's Licence is launching a revenge attack an the Road Haulage Association in an attempt to shut it down.
Jock Carstairs is furious that Sumo Overland Direct International Transport (SOW) was forced to withdraw its application for an 0-licence based on evidence presented to Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown which he claims is wrong.
Now SOINT plans to send an invoice to the RHA for costs incurred in reapplying for the 0-licence and for the advertising costs. if the RHA refuses to pay, the case will move to the Small Claims Court Carstairs has been to Companies House for copies of the RHA's accounts and says that he will seek advice on whether he can move to close the RHA down on the grounds that it has been trading at a loss for the past couple of years.
RHA solicitor Chris Over says the association would move to strike out any winding-up order against it as "an abuse of process of the court".
The RHA objected to SOCIT's application on the grounds that Jock Carstairs and his wife Linda, who had been involved in failed haulage firm Sumotrans, were shareholders in 50011 and were involved in the running of the company.
But Carstairs refutes this. He claims he resigned as a director last September and that Linda Carstairs resigned in March. Their current involvement is as driver/advisor and secretary respectively.
RHA regional director Mike Farmer claims he can prove they were shareholders in the company at the time of the inquiry in May and stresses that under no circumstances will the RHA pay the invoice. According to Farmer, Linda Carstairs had signed the application for the 0-licence. He says: "We had every right as a statutory objector to object to their application. But the company withdrew the application itself. They cannot blame us for the fact that their paperwork was not in order."