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No licence for at least a year for Felixstowe 'phoenix' firm
Page 12
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The directors of a company connected with two recently closed haulage firms have been banned from holding a licence. Mike Jewell reports.
A FELIXSTOWE HAULAGE firm has lost its licence and its directors have been banned from holding a licence for 12 months after a Traffic Commissioner accused it of effectively being a phoenix firm.
CP Transportation and its directors, Adam and Anthony Searle, appeared before Eastern TC Geoffrey Simms at. a public inquiry last month.
The company held a licence authorising three vehicles and three trailers. It had sought an additional operating centre with an increase in authorisation to 37 vehicles and 37 trailers:interim authority for that increase had been refused.
The Searles had previously been involved in Searle Distribution and AM Searle Dock Shunting Serviceswhich went into administration earlier in the year (CM 21 September). The TC said that application had attracted the concern of other Felixstowe-based operators. They had challenged its purpose, suggesting that it was a means of allowing the Searles to continue their haulage operations under the banner of CP Transportation.
The joint administrators provided draft statements of affairs showing that each individual business had debts of about £600,000. A report on the companies' financial collapse published in CM suggested that money was owed to a fuel company, and that drivers' wages had not been paid.
Appearing for the company. Howard Catherall said the Searles admitted a lack of financial expertise, permitting the businesses to expand rapidly without a full understanding of the likely consequences.
However, Catherall added that despite their cash-flow problems, the Searles did not resort to malpractices such as neglecting the condition of their vehicles or the hours their drivers worked.
The TC said the decision to apply to increase their authorisation to 37 vehicles had clearly been made in advance of the demise of the other companies, supporting the proposition that CP Transportation was the means by which the business was to be continued without interruption, despite the substantial liabilities which had been accumulated.
Recent bank statements for CP Transportation showed an average daily income of L12,184 and regular weekly groupings of payments to named individuals, suggesting payment of drivers' wages. The financial mismanagement of the other companies was not a sudden and recent occurrence.
He concluded that Adam and Anthony Searle should not be permitted to resume road haulage activities at least until the administrators had completed their function.