Minibus operator had no psv
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FINES and costs totalling £232 were imposed on minibus operators T. Canham & Sons Ltd, Whittlesey after March, Cambridgeshire, magistrates had been told they had operated a minibus for eight years under contract to the county council for the carriage of mentally handicapped veaple without a publicservice vehicle licence.
The company pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle without a psv licence, causing it to be driven by an unlicensed driver, and operating it without insurance. The driver, Brian Michael Hicks, pleaded guilty to similar charges.
Richard Carlson, prosecuting, said the minibus was observed last December by a tra lie examiner dropping five passengers off at a training centre. When the driver was asked to produce his psv driving licence he was unable to do so.
When interviewed Mr Jack Canham, a director, agreed there was no psv licence in force but said that the vehicle was covered by insurance.
The prosecution produced a letter later written to the county council by Mr Canham in which he said there had • — a technical infringement of the law and a row of seats had since been removed to takE! the vehicle outside the psv regulations.
Mr Carlson said that the stringent psv regulations had been avoided and the company had benefited from the money earned from the carriage of passengers.
In Mr Canham's defence it was said that he had misunderitood how many seats were to be allowed in a vehicle before the psv regulations came intq force. The company had been caught out by a technically and the offending seats had been taken out.
The company was fined a total of £160 and ordered to pay £72 costs. Mr Hicks, the irivar, was given an absolute iisc