First appearance in 40 years
Page 24
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two weeks at a St Helens disciplinary inquiry.
Norman Hughes, who holds a licence for four vehicles and four trailers, had been called before North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna.
DOT vehicle examiner David Collings said that in May he had examined two vehicles and two trailers by prior arrangement, issuing one delayed prohibition and one defect notice. There were large gaps in the records, he added.
One vehicle only had one inspection record for the whole of 1995 and only two records for 1997. There were only two records for one trailer. A vehicle given an immediate prohibition in October 1996 had last been inspected 12 months before.
Collings added that what system and Hughes had moved from his authorised operating centre without informing the TC.
Only the previous day an artic had been stopped by Cheshire Police, said Collings. The tractor was given a delayed prohibition and the trailer an immediate prohibition—Hughes' vehicles and trailers had attracted 15 prohibitions since January 1993.
Hughes said that most of his work was in the Merseyside area and his vehicles were forever getting picked up. He had held a licence for 40 years and this was the first time he had "been to a place like this".
He had been moved out of his original operating centre by the Sheriff due to a compulsory purchase order; his previous mechanic had been a bit lax with paperwork, but the chap he had now was really good.
Asked why prohibitions had been issued in the past -five years, Hughes said vehicle examiners were "coming on us for a lot of trivial things".
Mulvenna commented that brake defects were not trivial; he was suspending the licence because Hughes had failed to take heed of previous warnings.