Mrs Ferris takes over
Page 22
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• Katherine Ferris, the wife of South Wales coach operator Raymond Ferris who was jailed for nine months for the falsifying tachograph charts, has been granted a 13vehicle PSV licence.
In March Raymond Ferris, who traded as Ferris Coach Holidays of Senghenydd, Mid Glamorgan, was jailed at Bristol Crown Court and ordered to pay £5,000 costs after admitting 10 specimen offences of aiding and abetting drivers to falsify tachograph charts (CM 23-29 March).
Earlier this month his 18vehicle PSV licence was revoked by Deputy Traffic Commissioner Lyndon Davies.
Ferris was disqualified from holding or obtaining a PSV licence for five years, but the orders did not take effect until after Mrs Ferris's licence ap plication had been dealt with (CM 14-20 June).
For Mrs Ferris, Roger Cradick told South Wales Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh that she came before him with a clean sheet; she had only been concerned with the financial side of the business and had never had anything to do with the operational side. Since her husband had been imprisoned the firm had employed a transport manager and Mrs Ferris's son had obtained a CPC. Other than that, said Cradick, the current staff was the same.
Katherine Ferris gave an assurance that her husband would not come back into the business. She agreed to have the firm's tachograph charts checked by an outside agency. Mervyn Pugh said that he had to be satisfied that everything was 100% safe in every way and granted the licence on condition that the tachograph charts were checked by the firm every week, and by an outside bureau every 12 weeks. He required the registration numbers of the firm's vehicles to be given to the Traffic Area Office and told the firm to notify him if its nominated transport manager left.