Operator Called in Owing to Disqualified Director Being Appointed – Licence Allowed to Continue

This operator, represented at Public Inquiry by barrister Harry Bowyer, was called in as the new director had just finished a 12 month disqualification. It was apparent that the new director had been operating a company for some time during the course of his disqualification. Whilst the director had attended the Public Inquiry which led to his disqualification he was no longer a director of the company at that time and afterwards became estranged from the other directors of the company. The Office of the Traffic Commissioner had sent a decision letter to the company but had failed to notify the director of his disqualification directly. The other directors failed to notify the director of this decision letter. This was compounded by an error whereby The Office of the Traffic Commissioner failed to notice that the director had another company of which he was sole director. No action was taken to enquire as to whether he was still operating under that licence. SBC made written representations before the Public Inquiry which laid out the facts above. The Traffic Commissioner accepted that the director was not aware of his disqualification and allowed the licence to continue with the director in place subject to a formal warning relating to couple of maintenance issues that came to light from the paperwork submitted for the Public Inquiry.