AMD bid refused
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• A bid for a new 10-vehicle licence by Grays, Essexbased AMD Plant Hire has been refused by Eastern Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Compton Boyd, after a police objection.
Boyd said that in 1990 a licence application by O'Nion, trading as AMID Haulage, was refused, but ONion's vehicles were found operating three times in the next month and he was fined £900.
Two vehicles were found to be overloaded in August 1990 and January 1991 and he was again fined £900.
In January 1991 a licence was granted to Five Star Haulage, whose directors were AM ..Andrews, O'Nion's mother in law, and HJ Barnes, the transport manager's wife. When that firm was called to inquiry in October 1994 it was represented by ONion. He had no formal appointment but he arranged the work and detailed the lorries. Five Star's licence was revoked on the grounds the company was no longer of good repute.
In the same month Boyd revoked the licence held by O'Nion's brother-in-law, Stephen Andrews. Another application then came from Denise Transport, whose sole director was Denise O'Nion Mrs Andrews' daughter, and then wife of O'Nion. That application was refused as Deputy TC John Stevenson was not satisfied the company was of good repute AMD Plant applied for a licence shortly after Five Star Haulage's licence was revoked with the specified vehicles to be Five Star's former fleet.
For AMD, Jim Duckworth said any connection with the Andrews family had ceased. The company had operated without a licence because of finances and to keep drivers in work. Failure to report convictions, including a drink/drive conviction against O'Nion, was due to marriage problems and ignorance.
Boyd said that the company had been operating without a licence almost since the application was made over a year ago. O'Nion had been the driving force behind AMD Haulage. Five Star and now AMD Plant. When he didn't get a licence in 1989 he went on to run Five Star, and when that licence was revoked he tried for a licence for AMD Plant.
Boyd said that if O'Nion wasn't behind all three entities, then they were machinations hatched to deceive. Even if he was wrong in that, ONion's convictions revealed that he had little or no regard for the licensing system.