Banks gets another chance
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• A Brierley Hill based haulier who bought a stolen excise licence disc has been given another chance by West Midland LA John Mervyn Pugh. Mark Banks, trading as Banks Haulage of Leys Road, Brockmore, Brierley Hill appeared at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry.
The LA said a Banks vehicle was stopped by a traffic examiner at Perry Barr last August. The driver was unable to produce any tachograph records and the excise licence disc displayed on the windscreen was stolen. A number of penalties had been imposed for vehicle excise duty irregularities and a prohibition had been issued. Banks said that his vehicles were checked every fortnight and serviced every six weeks. He did not understand why the prohibition was endorsed as showing a significant maintenance failure, as the vehicle had only been tested six weeks before.
Traffic examiner Malcolm Seward said when he stopped the vehicle in August he was told by the driver that
the tachograph was defective and there were no previous tacho charts as it was his first day with the firm.
When he later found a number of charts in the back of the vehicle, the driver told him that what he had said was what the boss had told him to say. When he asked the driver whether "the boss" was Mark Banks, he said no, it was his brother Neil Banks. When interviewed later, Mark Banks admitted buying the stolen tax disc.
Traffic examiner David Hughes said that when he visited the firm in December, Mark Banks said that he was setting up a partnership with his brother Neil. He said that his brother had looked after the business while he was ill in August and September.
Mervyn Pugh cut the duration of the licence to expire at the end of September.