Tribunal orders a different IC
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Dover-based Frigoline and two of its directors have won a stay of execution after the Transport Tribunal ordered the authorities to reconsider their disqualification.
South Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Christopher Heaps had revoked Frig°line's 0-licence and disqualified directors Geoffrey Hoyle and Geoffrey Hart for three years after repeated requests to see three months worth of tacho charts had been ignored without any explanation.
Boyle maintained that he had resigned as a director in 1998 but had remained as operations manager. He claimed that the tachograph charts had been in a briefcase belonging to transport manager Kenton Beasley, which was stolen.
Hart agreed he had told the traffic examiner that he was an executive director of Frigotine but said that, though he was described as "managing director" on the company's notepaper, he had no part in the day-to-day running of the firm. The company was run by Boyle, Beasley and a David Elvey (CMS-14 March).
Sim Duckworth, for the company and the two directors, said there appeared to be a real likelihood that Heaps was influenced by documents in his possession of which the company and its directors had had no prior notice. in fact, they had only seen letters containing damaging allegations about the firm and Elvey when a bundle of documents relating to the appeal arrived.
This failure to disclose the substance of those documents amounted to a breach of the rules of natural justice, said Duckworth, as that material went to the heart of the matters being considered by the IC.
The Tribunal directed that the matter be reconsidered by a different TC.