Son has chance to mend father's sins
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• Stoke-on-Trent
based DSH Freight Services was allowed to continue in business after West Midland Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh was told the man who had run the company no longer played any part in its affairs.
DSH had been called to a Birmingham public inquiry because of unpaid fines, costs and back duty totalling £13,140.
In February 1996 the company was given a severe warning following convictions for drivers' hours offences and in July 1996 it was given a final warning over its maintenance standards.
For the company, Michael Carless said that it was an operation with a somewhat chequered history. For the greater part, including when it was known as Galawise Transport, the operation had always had Sean Hughes at its helm. That was no longer the case.
One of the main long-standing problems had been maintenance, he added, but a recent investigation had found this was now satisfactory.
The £13,140 had been paid the previous day by cash. Company director David Hughes and secretary Graham Payne had only been made aware of the fines when they received the letter about the inquiry. They had not been informed that a cheque in payment of the vehicle excise duty had been dishonoured and that the licence discs had been recalled, said Carless.
David Hughes said that his father Sean had not been anywhere near the business for some time. He had never seen any of the summonses as he had been out on the road.
Admitting that the bounced cheque had been from the company cheque book, Payne said that only three people could sign cheques—himself, David Hughes and David's mother. He could not say whose writing had been on the cheque stub.
Reducing the authorisation on the licence to eight vehicles and five trailers, Mervyn Pugh said that now his father had gone, David Hughes had the opportunity to become a good operator.