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O-licence lost after failure to declare drug conviction

14th July 2011, Page 8
14th July 2011
Page 8
Page 8, 14th July 2011 — O-licence lost after failure to declare drug conviction
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By Roger Brown

TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER (TC) for Scotland Joan Aitken has curtailed the O-licence of L&M Transport (Motherwell), after its boss failed to declare a prison sentence for supplying cocaine.

In a written decision following a public inquiry in Edinburgh in June, Aitken cut the licence of the business from three trucks to one, for two weeks from 15 July, after hearing that director and transport manager John Moffat had served three years and six months in Shotts Open Prison.

During the 1990s, Moffat had been convicted of supplying cocaine in the London, Glasgow and Motherwell areas, between August and September 1995, contrary to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. However, when Moffat submitted the O-licence application in 2009, he did not declare the convictions.

Moffat said it was a mistake on his part to believe this previous conviction was spent after 10 years, but there had been no intention to mislead and make a false declaration.

Aitken said she had decided not to revoke the licence as this would impact “very heavily” on Moffat’s fellow director Ian Livingstone and be “disproportionate”. She added: “Moffat was convicted of an extremely serious crime, namely the supply of cocaine. The term of imprisonment relects that seriousness. Such a term of imprisonment does not become spent and the conviction should have been disclosed in the application form and transport manager nomination forms.” Moffat had also been nominated part-time transport manager at Motherwell-based C&C when the haulier made its own O-licence application in 2009. Again, he had not declared his convictions. Aitken said C&C had not lost its repute and there was no need to give a warning against that licence.


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