Consultant, 75, admits carrier's licence offences
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• A 75-year-old transport consultant and a road haulage operator, aged 31, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on Monday to conspiring to obtain a carrier's licence under the 1960 Road Traffic Act by making false statements.
Edward John Tozer, the consultant, of Alexandra Park Road, Wood Green, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment suspended for three years. and Henry Albert Tebbutt, of Dersingham Avenue, Manor Park, was fined £50 and ordered to pay £200 costs.
Mr Julian Sandys, prosecuting, said Tebbutt ran a small haulage business, and had an "A" carrier's licence enabling two of his vehicles to carry goods all over the country.
These licences were very difficult to get at the time, so Tebbutt and Tozer plotted to "dress up an old firm which had gone out of business as if it were a going concern so that its 'A' carrier's licence for three vehicles might be kept going for Tebbutt's benefit".
At the end of 1968, Tozer introduced Tebbutt to a Mrs Sleeman, who owned a small transport business at Chadwell Heath. Tebbutt entered into an agreement to buy the business for £2000.
Mr Sandys said the firm had been out of business for about a year, but it still had an "A" carrier's licence for three vehicles — but they had been sold.
Tebbutt bought three vehicles and, by September 1969, he applied to the local Licensing Authority to have these vehicles put on the firm's "A" licence.
At that time, he would have been successful only if he could prove that the business was a going concern and there was a demand for its services.
"So Tozer and Tebbutt manufactured evidence to keep the Licensing Authority happy", said Mr Sandys.
They produced a bogus sale agreement saying that Tebbutt had paid £1500 for the goodwill and £500 for the vehicles.
They got bogus customers from a phone book to dupe a firm of accountants into producing impressive turnover figures. Tebbutt forged a whole series of drivers' records purporting to show hours spent on mythical work.
When the Licensing Authority received these documents, it granted the "A" licence to Mr Tebbutt. Meanwhile, Mrs Sleeman went to the LA with a number of documents which had been helpful to the prosecution. When a traffic examiner interviewed Tebbutt, he made a complete confession. Later, Tozer also made a statement admitting the offence.
Mr Sandys said: "While the inspiration and expertise came from Tozer, Tebbutt was by no means the innocent party. If the scheme had gone as he and Tozer intended he would have acquired this valuable licence which — if the true facts had been known to the Licensing Authority — he would never have got".
He said Tozer worked for many years in the licensing department of the Ministry of Transport. In 1953, he was dismissed for misconduct, and later became a selfemployed transport consultant.
Det Sgt Goddard said Tozer had three previous convictions — one for unlawful ounding, one for inciting a firm of haulage o erators to display a goods vehicle identity certificate belonging to another vehicle, and *king a false statement to obtain a variatibn to a limited "B" carrier's licence. Tebbutt was of previous good character.