Form Not Filled In: Operators Fined
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CILLING in a Ministry of Transport 1 form known as Stats 14 was a job "only for a fully qualified chartered accountant," declared Mr. B. L. A. Thomas, who was defending two coach proprietors who were summoned at Smethwick recently for not rendering the form.
Mr. Prys Jones, who prosecuted for the Ministry, said that 15 per cent. of the coach operators in the country had failed to make the return.
The defendants were William Thomas Nash, of 83, Raglan Road, Smethwick, and William Albert Mann, of 55, Nestfield Road, Smethwick.
Mr. Jones said that numerous letters had been sent to the defendants, but they had not replied, and no form had been sent in. It was causing much trouble to the Ministry of Transport, he said.
Mr. Thomas asked the Bench to look at the large-size four-page form, which, he said, had five columns dealing with capital expenditure alone. "The form has one 'saving grace," he said. "I can't plead that my clients have managed to mislay it."
Mr. Thomas said that the operators ran 28 vehicles between them, and that during the busy summer months they had had no time to fill in the form, which required a tremendous_ amount of statistical information.
The magistrates fined Nash £10, plus £5 for each day, from January 1, 1950, that he fails to send in the return— which was due last March—and he was ordered. to' pay £3-9s. 6d. costs. Mann, the second operator, was lined £5, with a similar proviso, arid costs.