TC disqualifies partnership from holding or obtaining PSV O-Licence, stating it was granted on a ‘false foundation’
In revoking the licence held by West Kilbride-based Marilyn Couper & Partners, trading as I Travel, Traffic Commissioner (TC) Joan Aitken has also disqualified the partners, Marilyn Couper and David and Samantha Stevenson, from holding or obtaining a PSV O-Licence for 30 months.
She concluded that the partnership’s restricted licence had been used as cover to circumvent the requirements for a national licence.
The TC said that when the one-vehicle licence was granted the trading name of Quarries (B&B) was put forward. The principal occupation given was running a guest house. The licence was granted on the premise that there was a partnership.
However, the Quarries was Mrs Couper’s domestic address and it was not operated as a commercial guest house.
Income, expenditure and invoices proceeded through a limited company called I-Travel The World incorporated nearly contemporaneously with the application for the licence. I-Travel The World operated minibuses and did not have an occupation other than that, and so could not qualify for a restricted licence.
Three vehicles had been in possession. Mr Stevenson was responsible for two vehicles being used simultaneously, thereby exceeding the licence authorisation.
That was achieved through the photocopying of a disc to give the appearance of lawful operating. She was in no doubt that Mr Stevenson was responsible for that arrangement and she rejected his assertion that the disc was forged and placed on his vehicle by a third party malcontent.
She was also in no doubt that Mr Stevenson chose to operate out with the confines of the regulatory requirements until such time as he had funds and the professional qualification to secure a standard licence.
Currently he did not have sufficient funds for a standard licence nor did he have the transport manager qualification.
Mrs Couper’s role had been to provide cover for her son-in-law’s business endeavour and the purported partnership. She knew nothing of how the minibuses were being operated or the requirements for O-Licensing save that she had to assert a connection to the Quarries.
Mrs Stevenson had allowed her name to be used in this purported partnership and as a cover for her husband’s business. She was fortified in her view that the partnership was a sham by the purported resignation of Mrs Couper intimated not by Mrs Couper but by Mr Stevenson, and the later withdrawal of that – given that there remained a need for the assertion that the Quarries was the principal occupation.
She was further fortified in that view by the absence of any record keeping for anyone ever commercially staying at the Quarries. Not unexpectedly, the purported partnership had no finance to produce, no bank accounts, nothing to show it existed.
What she was offered were the finances of the limited company and the domestic bank accounts of Mr and Mrs Stevenson.
The licence was granted on a false foundation. The licensing regime which existed to serve road safety and fair competition had been abused and betrayed.
