Prohibitions and tachograph offences lose firm's licence
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Brecon owner-driver John Gwyn Thomas has lost his Operator's Licence following convictions for the falsification of tachograph records and a series of prohibition notices.
Thomas, who traded as Thomas Transport, appeared before Welsh Deputy Traffic Commissioner Alan Jenkins.
Last year Brecon Magistrates fined Thomas 21,450 with £m costs after he pleaded guilty to 29 offences of tachograph falsification.
Thomas was granted his 0licence in 1995 following a twoyear disqualification—his previous licence had been revoked after someone else used a vehicle under its authority.
Traffic examiner Phillip Jones said recent tachograph records were being examined, but he declined to say if these revealed further offences.
Vehicle examiner Malcolm Yeomans said Thomas's vehicle had attracted four prohibition notices in two years. A maintenance investigation had revealed the lack of a forward planning system and there was no driver defect reporting system.
Thomas said most of his work was between his base in Brecon, a quarry in Cardiff and the Llanwern Steelworks in Newport. Asked why the systems failed, he said: I don't know really. There were not enough checks and I wasn't doing the job thoroughly enough. I was using a driver's defect reporting system last year but then I stopped."
Thomas said the missing mileage on the tachograph records which led to the convictions at Brecon arose because he was using his tractor as a private vehicle after finishing work at Cardiff.
"I didn't think I was doing anything wrong," he told the hearing. "I didn't have the trailer behind me and I was using it as a private vehicle."
Saying he had no alternative but to revoke the licence, the Deputy TC said: "We have before us five prohibitions in five years and four in two years. I have to look at whether this is a deliberate disregard for rules and regulations or honest omissions."
Jenkins added that Thomas's failure to reply to a warning letter from the licence review board in 1999 was an example of his attitude. The Deputy TO did not impose any order for disqualification, but he concluded that any application for a fresh licence within 12 months would be "inappropriate".