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TC calls for tighter controls on 0-licence applications
Page 10
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Can the Traffic Commissioners trust 0-licence applicants to be truthful?
It seems not — so maybe it's time to tighten up if we are to keep cowboys out of the industry. Mike Jewell reports.
A TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER is calling for an overhaul of the 0-licence application system following a licence application by a director with a criminal record and links to another director who had been disqualified indefinitely.
South-Eastern and Metropolitan TC Christopher Heaps says applicants should have to prove their identity. The system has traditionally operated on trust, but he is no longer prepared to assume that applications will be completed honestly.
Heaps has rejected an application for a nine-vehicle licence by McKinney& Son following an objection by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. Blair warned the TC that sole director Aidan Kelly had a criminal record and indicated that the company might be associated with Thomas McKinney, whose licence had been revoked when it was discovered that convictions had not been declared and that false bank statements and CPC certificates had been submitted.
The TC said Companies House revealed that McKinney was the company's sole shareholder, but also showed that he had resigned as a director on 25 July 2006, the day before the date of the licence application.
Before the public inquiry Heaps had been informed by transport consultant Rory Cropper that Kelly had also resigned as a director and had been replaced by Keirin Murphy.
Detective Sergeant Andrew Rose told the inquiry that McKinney had been arrested and that investigations showed vehicles specified on the interim licence had been specified on a number of previously revoked 0-licences. including those held by Leisurenotice, John Elliot, London Skips, James Linton, Jeremy Fear and Thomas McKinney.
Rose reported that the registration numbers of some of the vehicles had been changed following applications to the DVLA. Fines incurred by some of the named operators had been paid by Rhino Haulage. of which McKinney was the sole director.
This was in stark contrast to the checks made by solicitors, bankers and others under the money-laundering regulations. The TC concluded that the current situation is "wholly unacceptable".