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Owner-driver loses appeal on impounded truck
Page 33
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DERBY-BASED John Shenton has lost his appeal against the refusal of the North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell to return an impounded vehicle to him. Neither the TC nor the Transport Tribunal believed his claim that he was unaware the vehicle had been unlicensed.
When the vehicle was detained it was displaying an 0-licence disc that had expired nearly six weeks before. Enquiries revealed the disc had been issued to a limited company which had been dissolved in July 2003 and its licence had been surrendered.
Shenton said he had resigned as a director of the company as a result of a split with his wife, who had been the sole shareholder with sole control of the business paperwork. He had taken the vehicle as his own property and had believed it was duly licensed and taxed, assuming that the company's licence disc was transferable to himself.
When he started work again after Christmas he had not thought to check the continued validity of the licence and claimed he was unaware the vehicle was being used while unlicensed. The Tribunal said the TC had clearly considered that Shenton's story was not credible and they agreed. Even if Shenton 's wife had done all the paperwork in respect of the licence, it was not open for him to disregard the whole 0-licensing system. He had admitted he had done so to the traffic examiner.
The only consequence of a claim by a vehicle owner that he was aware of the system, but had not bothered to acquaint himself with the details, was that a TC considering a licence application in his name might deduce that he was unfit to hold an 0-licence.