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Firm carried on regardless after Vosa threatened prosecution
Page 33
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The Deputy IC rejected the firm's 0-licence application after the fleet had run without a licence for eight months. Mike Jewell reports.
A BID FORA NEW licence for seven vehicles and 25 trailers by DC Transport (Newport) has been turned down by the Welsh Deputy Traffic Commissioner Fiona Richards because the company had run without a licence for eight months. It had even continued to operate after Vosa threatened it with prosecution.
The sole director of the company was Lee Morgans; the nominated transport manager was David Cornfield, whose own licence had been revoked and who had been declared bankrupt. He was replaced as transport manager by Ian Dodd. The company secretary was Cornfield's wife Sarah.
The Deputy TC was told that Cornfield's transport operation had run successfully since 1993 as a family business with 17 vehicles and trailers. It collapsed in 2006 due to a cash flow crisis when a customer defaulted. Its creditors included Lee Morgans. He had acted as a subcontractor for the Cornfield business prior to its collapse and had continued to subcontract for the company using his own 0-licence.
Morgans' involvement in the company was designed to enable him to recoup some of the money he was owed in the form of a director's salary.
Sarah Cornfield said that she and Morgans held the shares in the company equally. Management decisions were made by her and Morgans.
The Cornfields accepted that following the bankruptcy in July 2006 the company had remained active in the steel industry, running up to four vehicles and 25 trailers without an 0-licence.
Traffic examiner Mark Cullsaid he had visited the company's proposed operating centre following allegations that it had been running trucks without an 0-licence and that its drivers had been breaking the hours rules. Cornfield had told him that the company was operating under his previously revoked licence.
Cull said he had asked to see tachograph charts but none had been produced so he had visited a customer. Celsa Steel, and obtained documentary evidence of the use of the company's vehicles.At this point he had warned Cornfield that the fleet should immediately be laid up.
However, one of the company's vehicles was subsequently stopped while carrying garden supplies. It was displaying an 0-licence disc from the previously revoked licence.
Dodd said he had advised Cornfield not to use the vehicles without a licence. When he discovered they were being used, he had resigned as transport manager.
Refusing the application, the DTC said this was a blatant case of unauthorised operation over a significant period of eight months. It demonstrated a total and wilful disregard of the relevant law, both prior to the licence application being made and afterwards, in the absence of any interim authority, even following the threat of criminal proceedings by Vosa in April 2007. •