Convictions cost repute
Page 19
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TSC (Barnsley) had its twovehicle licence revoked by North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe on the grounds that the company was no longer of good repute or of sufficient financial standing. TSC had failed to appear at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry.
The company first appeared before the Deputy TC in October following convictions sustained by director and transport manager Terry Shaw who had also been disqualified from acting as a director for eight years. The hearing was adjourned for evidence to be produced that he had resigned his directorship and that a deposit account containing £2,000 had been opened in the company's name.
Hinchliffe said a letter requesting an adjournment had been handed into the Traffic Area Office the previous day. It was quite wrong for the company to have assumed that request would be granted.
The Deputy TC said Shaw personally was no longer of good repute as he had been convicted of serious offences. In June Shaw had been convicted at Sheffield Crown Court on three counts of recklessly making a false statement in the course of a trade or business. He had been ordered to do 100 hours of community service.
One of the definitions of a serious offence was one where a community service order in excess of 60 hours had been ordered.
These were serious matters that had directly arisen out of the operation of buses by Shaw.
Shaw had also continued to act as a director of TSC after being disqualified as a director following other proceedings. As a consequence Hinchliffe had required written proof from the company and Companies House that Shaw had resigned as a director All that had been sent in was a photocopy of a form of resignation dated three weeks after the last hearing. Hinchliffe said there was no evidence before him that Companies House had recorded Shaw's resignation.
With regard to finance, Hinchliffe said that all he had was a letter from the company saying that the monies were in place as required—but there was no supporting evidence.
The 0-licence held by Terry Shaw Coachways, of which Shaw was a director had been revoked by TC Keith Waterworth in February 1998 on financial grounds.