TC's decision on late licence fee payment is upheld by tribunal
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Transport Tribunal has dismissed an appeal against South Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Michael Turner's refusal to accept the late payment of Deospeed International's annual licence fee. This had led to the automatic termination of the company's licence.
The fee for the Sayers Common. West Sussex-based company's six-vehicle licence should have been paid by the end of June but was not received by the Traffic Area Office until 9July. A IC is only empowered to accept late payment in "exceptional circumstances".
When notified that the company's licence haul automatically terminated, director Valerie Card wrote to say that a cheque had been written before the deadline and that the letter had been left to be posted at the correct time. Unfortunately her staff did not post the letter, which was posted on her return to the office.
Saying that he could see no excep tional circumstances in this case, Turner pointed out that the company knew the date by which the cheque had to be received by the TAO and had been sent a reminder. If the phrase "exceptional circumstances" was to have any meaning, it must cover something more than a failure in the company's office procedure.
Transport manager David Ilhvay told the Tribunal that he had been ill at the time. He had asked someone else to deal with the payment but there had been an oversight. There had been no intention to avoid payment.
Dismissing the appeal. the Tribunal considered that the IC was right to find that there were no exceptional circumstances. This was a simple oversight, the Tribunal said, and more was required before exceptional circumstances could be found.