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0-licence revoked after inquiry no-show
Page 26
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AN OPERATOR WHO failed to turn up to a disciplinary inquiry to explain his use of an unauthorised operating centre has had his licence revoked.
The three-vehicle licence held by Falkirk-based James Playfair, trading as Caledonia Auto Services, was revoked by the Scottish Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken (pictured) and Playfair was disqualified from holding or obtaining an 0-licence for nine months.
He had been called before the TC because of connections with a Robert Clarkson, from whose yard his trucks appeared to be operating. Clarkson's firm, West Lothian Haulage, had been the subject of impounding proceedings. The TC refused a request to surrender Caledonia's licence after Playfair failed to appear at the Edinburgh disciplinary inquiry.
The TC was told that when a traffic examiner visited the Falkirk premises they were closed and he was informed that Playfair had moved to Airdrie around July 2008. Playfair's two vehicles were registered to RSD Commercials, whose address in Falkirk was the operating centre of West Lothian Haulage.
When Playfair was interviewed, he had shown the examiners a yard in Boyd Street where he said he parked his hired trailers That yard was where Clarkson and his vehicles were often to be found. Playfair was asked whether Clarkson owned the Airdrie premises but said it was someone he knew only as "Scary Mary': Clarkson had been given a drivers' hours prohibition when driving one of Playfair's vehicles. When asked if he was behind the licence for Caledonia Auto Services, he had replied: "Prove it."
The TC said that West I ,othian Haulage's licence was revoked in March 2004. RBC Logistics, the sole director of which was Clarkson's wife Barbara, was subsequently refused a licence and a licence application by Clarkson himself in September 2005 was refused.
Playfair had been operating without an authorised operating centre for a significant period of time. The TC added that there was "something odd" about the operation and the fact that Playfair did not wish to come and explain himself Clarkson appeared to be on the scene in that he was a driver for Playfair and had connections to the locations at which the Playfair vehicles and trailers were parked.