Revoked Licence Given Back to Haulier
Page 43
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I N a reserved decision issued on Wednesday the Transport Tribunal allowed an appeal by Mr. Charles Hewitt, of Annan, Dumfriesshire, against the revocation of a special A licence by the Northern Licensing Authority. The licence was revoked on November 6,1958, mainly because of a false statement about the unladen weight of the vehicle.
The appeal was linked with that of Mr. John Scott (see page 298). Both raised questions involving the reputation of K. and B. Motors, Ltd., Newcastle upon Tyne.
The company supplied Northumberland County Council with a weight certificate purporting to show that they had had the vehicle weighed on a weighbridge at the Workshops for the Adult Blind, Newcastle, and filet its weight was 2 tons 9 cwt. 3 qtr. 14 lb. Mr. Hewitt produced a driving record showing that the vehicle had not been in Newcastle on the day in question. The case was returned to the Licensing Authority for further inquiry.
In their final judgment, the Tribunal say that the weight certificate was a " fake." The weight of the vehicle was not less than about 3 tons 1 qtr., but Mr. Hewitt had no intention of misleading the Licensing Authority. The certificate had been procured by fraud on the part of a servant of the company.
By signing a blank application form and leaving K. and B. Motors to complete it, Mr. Hewitt authorized the company to act as his agents and must accept responsibility for the false statement which the company, for their own purpose, made in his name. The Tribunal think he has " purged " his offence by the expense and anxiety in Which he has been involved, No regard should be had to his " offence" in any future application.
Mr. Hewitt's licence, which will expire on June 30, will be restored to him. "We must not be understood as thinking that, on the evidence before him, the Licensing . Authority was wrong," the Tribunal add. "The matters we have had to consider have turned out to be entirely different from those which he had to consider."
DISPUTE SETTLED
THE dispute over the purchase of Direct Roadways, Ltd. (The Commercial Motor, March 25), has been settled, Mr. Justice Cross was told in the Chancery Division on Tuesday. On March 18, Mr. Edward Henry Smith and his father, Mr. Edward Henry David Smith, of High Trees. Parkland, Fareham, Hants, gave undertakings not to dispose of the issued share capital of the company.
Mr. John Augustus Hill, Bottings, Curdridge, Batley, Hants, had earlier obtained an ex-parte injunction restraining them from disposing of the company. Mr. A. C. Sparrow, for Mr. Hill, asked that no order be made.
Mr. Edward Seeley, for Messrs. Smith, said the agreement concerning the sale which was in dispute had now been performed.