Fraud driver returns
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• A lorry driver convicted of a fuel theft and defrauding the DHSS has been granted a new operator's licence to enable him to enter the haulage industry, by North Western Licensing Authority Martin Albu.
Roy Seddon, trading as R & D Transport of Leigh, Lancashire, had applied for a new national licence for two vehicles. He admitted pleading guilty to the theft of 20 gallons (91 litres) of diesel fuel in November 1985 (for which he had been fined £75) and to pleading guilty to nine counts of defrauding the DHSS for which he had been sentenced to nine month's imprisonment at Bolton Crown Court.
Seddon said that he had been an HGV driver for 20 years. He had been working on a day-to-day casual basis for a local firm when he stole the fuel. He should not have been working for it at all. He had previously been out of work so long that he had nothing, and it had been his intention to sell fuel. As a result, the firm gave him no more work and he became the subject of a DHSS investigation. He was subsequently charged and dealt with at the Crown Court, the amount involved being about £5,800.
He had been released from prison in February 1987. He had realised that he was unlikely to get a job, so he had decided to start up on his own and since his release had been a self-employed driver.
Questioned by the LA, Seddon said it was an episode of his life which he had put completely behind him. He was making a go of the new venture and was operating in the black. He had started with a transit van and his wife and son had helped him finance that. The main work was polystyrene and he had recently acquired a large vehicle for the bulk loads. That vehicle was currently being operated under an interim licence.
Granting a licence, Albu said that if Seddon was going into business as a haulier dealing with other peoples' goods, it was of some importance that he paid attention to the requirements of the law, but he accepted that Seddon had served his time and had since made efforts to run a proper business.