Hall Jones boss disqualified for lending O-licence
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By Roger Brown
BIRMINGHAM HAULAGE boss Dennis Hall Jones has been disqualiied for two years after allowing his O-licence to be used by another business.
At a public inquiry (PI) in Birmingham, James Astle, the Deputy Trafic Commissioner (DTC) for the West Midlands Trafic Area, said Edgbaston-based Hall Jones had permitted the “lagrant and serious” use of his sole trader licence for ive vehicles by MVT Transport.
The PI was told that in November 2009 a truck displaying an O-licence disc in the name of Hall Jones was stopped on the A361 in Devon.
However, the driver and co-driver said they were employed by MVT and were under its instruction that day.
Robert Lees, VOSA Trafic Examiner (TE), wrote two separate letters to Hall Jones at his registered address requesting an explanation in February 2010, but there was no reply.
It was later discovered that MVT shared an address with Hall Jones in Edgbaston.
The TE also interviewed MVT director Ian Duckers, who said Hall Jones was a “silent partner” in MVT and visited the premises occasionally.
A registered keeper’s check of the vehicles speciied on the licence showed that all ive were registered to MVT at the Edgbaston address.
MVT employed the drivers of the vehicles speciied in the licence and arranged for them to be insured.
The DTC said Jones – who lives abroad for most of the year – had lost his repute.
Revoking Hall Jones’s licence, Astle added: “I conclude that the operator has allowed the licence to be used by the company purportedly to cover the unlawful operation of goods vehicles outside the scope of an O-licence.”