Ban for copied discs
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• by Michael Jewell Bryan J Nunn Haulage's licence has been revoked after the Bury St Edmunds-based firm was caught using photocopied 0-licence discs following a licence curtailment.
Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms also disqualified the company and its sole eh rector Bryan Nunn from holding or obtaining an 0licence for five years.
Last October the IC cut the company's licence from 24 vehicles and 15 trailers to 10 vehicles and 10 trailers following concern over its maintenance.
Traffic examiner Richard Mutimer said that in January an artic belonging to the company was stopped in a weight check in Bury St Edmunds. The vehicle had been taken off the company's licence in October but was displaying an 0-licence disc. Laboratory tests con
firmed that the disc was counterfeit. Mutimer added.
The company subsequently pleaded guilty to allowing a false 0-licence disc to be used with intent to deceive and to making a document closely resembling an 0-licence disc with intent to deceive. It was fined £600 with £75 costs.
When shown the seized disc, Bryan Nunn had immediately said it was a photocopy. Sim Duckworth, defending, said there was no evidence that Bryan J Nunn Haulage had used the vehicle concerned without the authority of the 0-licence as it had been on contract to another firm.
Nunn said that when the licence was curtailed he had laid five drivers off and another had left. He added that he had a number of vehicles working away and he told the TO that he had removed the genuine discs to prevent the drivers from knowing there was a problem and dumping the vehicles.
Saying he could not understand why it was necessary to photocopy discs, the TO pointed out that the genuine discs could have been left in the cabs until the day the curtailment order took effect.
Simms concluded that he did not find the explanation for using the photocopied discs a plausible one. The forgeries were elaborate; it had been a calculated and deliberate attempt to copy 0-licence discs.