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I CASE FOUR
Page 28
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Brighton firm's Licence is suspended
VEHICLE MAINTENANCE problems have led to the one vehicle licence held by Brightonbased Robin Flint, trading as County, being suspended for two weeks by South Eastern and Metropolitan Deputy Traffic Commissioner Christopher Heaps.
In January 2006, the licence was suspended for two weeks at a public inquiry where vehicle maintenance was also the issue. Vehicle examiner Grant Thunder told an Eastbourne public inquiry that there was no daily written drivers' defect reporting system; that there have been excessive intervals between preventative maintenance inspections on two occasions; that there was a 50% annual vehicle test first-time pass rate in 2005 and 2006. and a 25% pass rate in 2007; and that three prohibition notices had been issued relating to four immediate defects and one delayed defect.
Flint said he employed a selfemployed fitter for 40 hours a week. The vehicle test failure rate was explained by the fitter presenting the vehicle as "a gamble" to obtain a multi-check result.
Rolling road brake tests were completed before the vehicle was submitted for testing. The excessive inspection intervals were explained by breakdowns in Europe and holidays.
For Flint, Geoffrey Littlewood submitted that he was not a rogue, but that his "jigsaw was not cor rect" in attempting to act as operator, driver and fitter.
In suspending the licence, the DTC said that the suspension of one week imposed in January 2006 did not seem to have led to any material improvement in maintenance.