Mightyhire loses 0-licence appeal
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• Hull-based Mightyhire and its managing director, Philip Barker, have lost appeals against the revocation of the company's licence, and their disqualification from holding or obtaining an Operator's Licence for a period of 12 months.
North Eastern Deputy LA Anthony Richardson revoked the company's licence for 20 vehicles and two trailers and imposed the disqualification orders because of a conviction against Barker on 22 counts of false accounting.
Barker had pleaded guilty to the charges, which arose after it was discovered that customers were being charged for excessive weights on false weight tickets. The 22 counts were said to be specimen offences; 1,100 false weight tickets were allegedly issued between April
and October 1988. Barker was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, fined 211,000 and ordered to pay costs of 210,800. The 11 drivers involved were given conditional discharges (CM 2430 May and 21-27 June 1990).
Now the Transport Tribunal has rejected arguments that the penalty was out of proportion compared with the gravity of the offences, the tribunal • said that Barker had pleaded guilty to dishonesty, acting with a view to gain and with intent to cause loss.
The tribunal concluded that the DLA was justified in taking a serious view, saying that the convictions related to the way in which Mightyhire's business was conducted. While it was always a serious matter to put a company out of business, many of Mightyhire's employees had been involved in the fraud.