“Fronting” Concerns Allayed at Traffic Commissioner’s Public Inquiry

The Operator in this case, represented by Barrister Harry Bowyer, had his application for an Operator’s Licence referred to a Traffic Commissioner’s Public Inquiry. The problems arose because the Transport Manager had been on a previous licence after it had been revoked and this had not been declared on the application for the instant licence. He was also on the old operator’s application for a new licence which was subsequently withdrawn. There were a couple of coincidences that aroused the suspicions of the Office of the Traffic Commissioner that the application for the new operator might be a “front” for the previous operator.

SBC were able to show that the director of the new company was entirely unconnected with the previous company and that the only connection was the Transport Manager. A file was prepared which showed that the new company was a genuine application independent of the old company and the Deputy Traffic Commissioner was satisfied that this was “obviously not a front” and allowed the application as applied for subject to undertakings offered by the operator.