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'Sabotage ruined
Page 42
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my business,
• A former Army sergeant who, it was said, has commendations from Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, has blamed sabotage for putting him out of business. Mr Kenneth Ross, Lochalsh Road, Inverness, was speaking after the Scottish LA Mr A. B. Birnie had revoked the operating licence for his only lorry.
"This has ruined my business," said Mr Ross, who told the court last week he used his lorry mainly for a firewood business. Solicitor Mr Peter Macdonald said the sabotage took place in January last year when Mr Ross's lorry had its tyres cut, brake pipes cut and bodywork hacked with axes.
Mr Ross, he said, bought a new lorry, but only two days before he took delivery, while driving his damaged lorry, he was stopped by police and eventually fined .£86 at Dingwall Sheriff Court for having a defective vehicle.
At the licensing court in Inverness last August, added Mr Macdonald, Mr Ross's licence was suspended for two months and curtailed to cover only one lorry — previously he had had the option of putting another lorry on the road. During the period of the suspension, Mr Macdonald said, Mr Ross drove a scrap merchant's lorry and on two occasions used it for his own business. On one of these occasions he was stopped by police and subsequently fined £15 at Inverness Sheriff Court for operating while suspended.
Mr Macdonald submitted there was a case for leniency. If Mr Ross's licence was revoked he would lose his livelihood and so would his three employees. He also made the point that, unlike the occasion when Mr Ross's licence was suspended, on this occasion there was no question of the lorry being defective and there was no danger to the public.
Mr Birnie said it was difficult to find any excuse for Mr Ross's behaviour. To operate during suVension showed contempt for the decision of the LA. "I have emphasized repeatedly," he said, "that I cannot afford to exercise leniency to a man just because he has only got one lorry."
He revoked Mr Ross's licence from midnight June 24, and told him that he was not going to the limit of his powers. He could have barred him from ever again holding an operator's licence.