Seymour stopped
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• The licence held by County Durham-based AB Seymour & Sons has been revoked. The company's managing director James Seymour has been disqualified from holding a licence for 12 months, and thereafter until there is medical evidence that he has fully recovered from psychiatric injuries resulting from a 1984 car crash.
Seymour was convicted at Teeside Crown Court on 19 January on four counts of making false instruments, four of using false instruments and four of receiving stolen property after purchasing blank excise licence discs.
The offences were said to involve a loss of Vehicle Excise Duty of around £20,000. Seymour asked for a further 79 offences to be taken into account and was given an 18 months prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to pay £200 costs.
The company, based at Trimdon Colliery, is licensed for 19 vehicles and six trailers. Convictions for tachograph and overloading offences have been recorded against it. The LA directed that his decision should not take effect until the end of July, to give the company a chance to restructure. He warned that in considering any fresh licence application he would need to be assured that Seymour had no part in the control of the business.
In evidence Seymour said he had felt the business was crumbling at the time and he had wanted to hold it together. He admitted he had lacked judgment and self-control.
L A Frederick Whalley said he accepted medical evidence put before the Crown Court that the excise licence offences were due to Seymour's psychiatric condition following the accident. He was nevertheless singularly unimpressed by his apparent complacency about the overloading convictions.