Safety wins over doctor's letter
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rThe two-vehicle/ iln two-trailer licence rThe two-vehicle/ iln two-trailer licence L held by Julie
rrskine, trading as Joseph Stuart International, of Hythe, was suspended when she failed to appear before South Eastern and Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Michael Turner.
Turner said that three days before the inquiry a hand-written note had been received from Erskine, saying she was unable to attend for medical reasons. She included a letter from her doctor stating that she found herself unwittingly the subject of various creditors and was emotionally unable to cope with the legal and financial consequences of the situation she found herself in.
In June 1998 traffic examiner Patrick Ward checked one of Erskine's vehicles at Dover Docks. He found that the driver was disqualified and the vehicle was displaying an expired vehicle excise licence disc. When the driver was asked for his current tachograph chart he said it was in Calais. When asked why he had said it was two hours over the top so he tore it up. The driver then gave evidence suggesting that Erskine's husband Paul Luckett was responsible for the operation. When Luckett was interviewed he said that Erskine was the sole proprietor. Further attempts were made to contact both Erskine and Luckett without success.
Suspending the licence, Turner said that when he received a sick note he would normally agree to an adjournment. But there were some cases where the public interest, and the interests of road safety in particular, took precedence. The evidence of the doctor's note not only cast considerable doubt on Erskine's financial standing but showed that she was incapable of running the business properly if she could not attend the public inquiry.
Nor did he believe that Luckett was running the business properly in her absence, and there was no indication that the authorised transport manager, a Mr Hudson, was there at all.
Calling for a further public inquiry to consider the repute of both Erskine and Hudson, Turner said that if they were not represented at that inquiry he would have little option but to revoke the licence, and he might well disqualify Erskine from holding a licence.
He might also find that Hudson was not of good repute which would prevent him from acting as transport manager on any licence.