IC faces allegations
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II by Mike Jewell
The integrity of Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms is to be scrutinised by the Transport Tribunal following a claim that he accepted false evidence at a public inquiry.
The allegation was made during an appeal against Simms' decision to ban Leicester coach operator Anthony Richardson from holding a PSV licence for three years.
Jim Duckworth, representing Richardson, said that Simms had called a witness on his own behalf, effectively making him both prosecutor and judge at the public inquiry.
Duckworth alleged that evidence given by the witness, Paul Garrett, that Richardson's inspection records were forged was not only false but that the investigating traffic examiner had been complicit in this. He argued that an unbiased TC would have had reasonable doubts about the reliability of the evidence.
The public inquiry had been intrinsically unfair and biased as a result of the TC's conduct. Duckworth alleged.
Tribunal president Jacqueline Beech said the TC's hearing was contrary to the provisions of the Human Rights Act and that the case raised serious allegations about the integrity and conduct of both Simms and the traffic examiner. in addition, an explanation was needed as to how Garrett came to give evidence at the public inquiry.
She requested that the Department of Transport be represented when the appeal reopens on 19 April.
A clerk at the Eastern Traffic Area Office explains that Simms will not be making any comment on the situation until after the appeal hearing.