1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142 
Legal costs may Lead to redundancies
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A COMPANY THAT successfully appealed a licence revocation after the Transport Tribunal criticised a Traffic Commissioner's decision could be forced to make redundancies as a result of the huge costs it racked up fighting the case.
Brett Maddison, managing director at South Lincs Plant Hire, says he lost faith in British justice after Deputy TC Mary Kane branded his conduct "horrendous" when an investigation revealed 26 examples of insufficient rest and 40 examples of a tacho mode switch being used incorrectly at the firm.
However, Tribunal president Hugh Carlisle QC said the offences arose from driving small distances and were only an hour or two short. He also said Kane misdirected herself and had failed to carry out a proper balancing exercise (CM 19 March).
But Maddison says the 210,000 he spent on solicitors' fees to fight the case is putting his employees' livelihoods in jeopardy: "ft's put me to the point where I might have to make people redundant.
"We just haven't got the cash. We are still paying the solicitors off; the one that did the PI and the one that did the Tribunal."
He continues: "We are not saying we didn't do some things wrong; we did and we rectified our failings immediately. But in the current financial climate this is something any company could do without."
Maddison adds that the firm is now trying to bounce back from the case: "Transport is not our main issue, we are a plant hire equipment company. But we still have to deliver the equipment. We had to fight it all the way. God knows what it's cost everyone else.
"The QC said the amount of money this cost the company must be more than justified as punishment."