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Operator 'surrendered effective control'

15th January 2009
Page 24
Page 24, 15th January 2009 — Operator 'surrendered effective control'
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Keywords : Bowden

AN OPERATOR who falsely claimed to have a workshop and who surrendered effective management control to his nephew has had his 0-licence revoked.

Neath-based David Bowden, trading as S&H Contracting, had been called before Welsh Deputy Traffic Commissioner Roger Seymour at a Newport disciplinary inquiry but failed to attend.

As well as revoking Bowden's licence for four vehicles and three trailers, the DTC held that Bowden's transport manager Rhian Bowden had lost her repute.

The DTC said a fax had been received that morning stating that Bowden wished to surrender his licence. Because of the seriousness of the allegations, he declined to accept the surrender.

Vehicle examiner Michael Williams said he had not seen Bowden or his transport manager. When he carried out a maintenance investigation in 2003, Bowden's nephew Hugh appeared to have day-to-day responsibility.

Williams also said that when he carried out a recent investigation, he was unaware of a letter from Bowden dated October 2003 stating that workshop facilities had been constructed. He added that Hugh Bowden had told him there were no maintenance facilities at the operating centre. Though there was evidence of a functioning driver defect-reporting system, almost all the other elements of a functioning maintenance system were absent.

Over the last five years, one delayed and two immediate prohibitions had been issued, together with two variations. Nine of the 10 items listed on the prohibitions were brake-related. The annual test failure rate was 2.5 times the national average. The DTC concluded that Bowden had surrendered effective management control of the licence to his nephew. It appeared that the statement in the letter of October 2003 that workshop facilities had been constructed was untrue. He was satisfied that Rhian Bowden had failed to discharge her responsibilities as transport manager.


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