Anonymous complaint received by vehicle examiner
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• After sacking a fitter he employed at a wage, for a six-day week, of 160 a week because the man refused to carry on working unless he received more, a Leyland, Lancashire, haulier operating four vehicles, two of which he serviced and maintained himself, an anonymous complaint was made to the senior vehicle examiner that the vehicles were not up to standard.
Representing Mr D. N. Fletcher of Midge Hall. Leyland, haulage contractor, Mr J. Backhouse told the North Western LA, Mr C. R. Hodgson, that he may well feel that it was perhaps not difficult for him to guess where the anonymous complaint came from.
Mr A. I Evans, a vehicle examiner, said that after examining four vehicles on February 5 at Midge Hall he found two in an unsatisfactory condition and issued immediate GV9s on them. A number of records referring to the vehicles were also missing from the files.
Mr J. Backhouse told Mr Hodgson that the GV9s were not related to serious faults and they had been cleared soon afterwards. It was an odd coincidence that the two vehicles concerned were those looked after by the sacked fitter: and his client, Mr Fletcher, had found records appertaining to this missing afterwards.
Curtailing Mr Fletcher's licence by one vehicle which he said was off the road anyway, Mr Hodgson said there did seem to be mitigating circumstances in the case and he proposed to take no further action. Mr Fletcher had now taken steps to ensure the correct maintenance of his vehicles and had adequate staff to do this.