Yes case to answer
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A COACH OPERATOR who is charged with using a public service vehicle without a licence is not to get away scot-free — though last week it looked as though he would.
For Bedfordshire justices had decided that operator J. B McAleer had no case tc answer — even though thE operator had admitted to thE police that the coach con. cerned had no Certificate o. Fitness.
The police, who held tha this automatically suspendec the psv licence, appealed t( the Queen's Bench Divisioi against the ruling when th( magistrates made their deci sion known.
The vehicle was being use, under contract, at the time o the offence, to transpor school children. The Bedford shire justices took the vies that since there was n evidence of separate fare being paid, the bus was not z. the time of the offence a publi service vehicle, as defined i Section 117(1) of the 1960 Ac This section defines a psv as motor vehicle used for ca tying passengers for hire an reward."
Lord Widgery, who heat the appeal, said in his judg ment issued last week, that ti charge had identified ti vehicle as "a contract ca riage" and since ti passengers had not pa separate fares, then it was contract carriage operath • without a psv licence.