Paraffin was used off-road
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A Nottinghamshire haulier of 29 years' standing, who was caught using rebated fuel in his vehicles, has been allowed to keep his licence by North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe.
The four-vehicle international licence held by Robert
Thompkins, trading as
Thompkins Transport, of Retford, had previously been revoked by TC Keith Waterworth following evidence that Thompkins' vehicles had been running on paraffin. Thompkins had paid a compounded out-of-court penalty of £17,072, and in 1991 he had paid a similar out-of-court penalty after the misuse of gas oil was detected ( CM5-11Nov 1998).
That decision was subsequently quashed by the Transport Tribunal, which held that the TC had been wrong to consider that compounding was
equivalent to a conviction (CM 1-7 April). In May the Deputy TC adjourned the re-hearing of the case pending transcripts of the tapes of interviews carried out by Customs (CM 27 May 2June).
Producing the transcripts. Customs officer Andrew Smith said Thompkins had admitted the use of 20,913 litres of paraffin as road fuel in the UK between June 1997 and April 1998 with a potential loss to the revenue of /8,536,67.
Thompkins said one of the two vehicles concerned had been hired to a Brian Dobbs for up to six weeks at a time. It was used on Immingham Docks and on Continental work. Dobbs had bought paraffin from him— he had thought it was all right to use kerosene on the docks. Dobbs also used paraffin on the Continent, as did most international hauliers.
Thompkins added that he had used paraffin when the vehicle was working on power station sites. The second vehicle had been acquired as a spare vehicle; it was used for shunting in the yard and on power station sites. He had thought it was legal to use paraffin off-road.
Thompkins claimed he had admitted using more paraffin than he had actually used in order to satisfy Customs & Excise.
For Thompkins, James Backhouse said he had believed that the use of paraffin by another operator. was not his concern, but as he had supplied the paraffin it was. The use by Thompkins himself had been offroad.
Rejecting the contention that Thompkins had agreed to compounding for commercial reasons, the Deputy TC said that this sort of behaviour could, and would in the future, lead to a loss of repute. However, Thompkins had been through the "legal mill" to some extent and he drew back from that conclusion in this case.
He commented that if operators in such circumstances fully and frankly admitted what they had done, co-operated with Customs & Excise and quickly paid any penalty imposed, these were matters that a TC could take into account when considering repute.