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P TR ANSPORT TRIBLINA..
Page 17
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Victory for 0-licence appeal operator
By Dominic Perry
A MIDDLESEX OPERATOR whose 0-licence was revoked because of an allegedly false maintenance contract and a lack of financial standing has won his appeal against the decision.
Adrian O'Malley, trading as Harrow-based O'Malley Haulage, held an international 0-licence for four vehicles and one trailer. The company was also authorised for seven vehicles and one trailer.
Its licence was revoked by Miles Dorrington, Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC) for South-Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Area, at a February public inquiry (PI). Mark Laprell, speaking for the company, told the tribunal that his client felt that he was a "marked man" because of his business dealings with John Plummeridge,
a phony transport consultant who was jailed last year.
Laprell emphasised that Plummeridge's conviction did not mean that every transaction he had been involved in was dishonest.
He pointed out that there was positive proof that O'Malley's 0-licence had been obtained using genuine bank statements and a genuine CPC.
The DTC had also got the burden of proof wrong, argued Laprell, in requiring O'Malley to prove he was innocent and had approached his findings on an incorrect basis, particularly in relation to the allegedly false maintenance contract.
Dates used by the DTC to hack up his assertion that the 'Traffic Area Office had been deliberately misled were wrong, argued Laprell.
"It was not unknown for documents to have been lost or misplaced by the Traffic Area Office, especially at this time with the contemporaneous centralisation of documents at Leeds," he said. There was also no account taken of O'Malley's previously unblemished record.
In summary, he said, the DTC's evidence was "not cogent and was built on insufficient foundations" The tribunal upheld the appeal and also determined the firm was of sufficient financial standing.