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Tribunal dismisses 'phantom driver' appeal
Page 42
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• The appeal by Barnett and Graham Ltd. against a decision of the Northern LA was dismissed by the Transport Tribunal in London on January 31. There was no respondent.
Mr. T. H. Campbell Wardlaw, for Barnett and Graham, said that the appellant company, based in Penrith, had applied for a limited B licence for 10 vehicles in possession and one vehicle to be acquired. This last vehicle, weighing only one ton 3cwt, was not now affected by the licensing laws, however. Subject to the grant, a B licence belonging to the appellant company would have been surrendered, so this was in fact an application for a re-grant of a licence which was due to expire on July 31 1968.
In a letter dated October 17 from the clerk to the Licensing Authority, Barnett and Graham was advised that convictions made against the company for records and hours offences at Penrith magistrates' court on August 29 1967 and September 24 1968 would be taken into account by the LA.
On November 12, at the public inquiry in Cockermouth, the LA had declared his intention to deal with the application under section 174 of the Road Traffic Act 1960. A vehicle examiner had given evidence of hours and records offences committed by the appellant company over a six-week period in January and February of 1968. Drivers, the examiner had stated, had been taking loads from Workington to Consett and Sheffield and back but exceeding their permitted hours of driving by adding to this the journeys between Workington and the company's base in Penrith. Attempts had been made to cover up these illegal operations; drivers' records had purported to show the Penrith-Workington and Workington-Penrith work to have been done by different drivers and in some cases by the company's directors. These records, however, had later been proved to have been forged.
Since those offences had been committed, said Mr. Campbell Wardlaw, a further three drivers and three additional vehicles had been acquired.
The LA's decision as given in Applications and Decisions had been to grant the licence for 10 vehicles, but to suspend four of those vehicles for 12 months. In the decision given to the company, however, it was stated that only six vehicles had been licensed; no reference was made to the four suspended vehicles.
Mr. Campbell Wardlaw at first submitted that it was not within the scope of an LA's power under section 174 to arrive at such a punitive decision. He later withdrew this submission.
In suspending the four vehicles, said Mr. Campbell Wardlaw, the LA had imposed what amounted to a penalty of some £6,000 on the company. In doing so, he had at no point considered the interest of those who were in need of the transport formerly provided by those vehicles.
Mr. G. D. Squibb, president of the Tribunal, announced the Tribunal's decision to dismiss the appeal and said that reasons for the judgment would be given in writing.