TC Joan Aitken made the revocation and disqualification after maintenance records were fabricated by one of the company’s directors
The falsification of maintenance records has led to the revocation of the seven-vehicle licence held by Edzell, Angus-based Glenesk Travel.
The company and its directors Alan and Ruth Gray have also been disqualified from holding or obtaining a PSV O-Licence for 18 months.
Traffic Commissioner (TC) Joan Aitken also disqualified Mr Gray from acting as Transport Manager for a similar period, and directed that he would not be accepted on any licence until he could demonstrate attendance at an at least a two-day course on understanding operator licensing and the responsibility of a public service vehicle transport manager.
Vehicle Examiner (VE) Alec Williams said that he carried out a pre-arranged maintenance investigation in June 2016 following the issue of an ‘S’ marked prohibition at Perth Races.
He examined two vehicles, issuing one with an immediate prohibition. There was no forward planner in use, and after analysing the maintenance records produced he concluded that the records were not genuine given their appearance, date inconsistencies, and unusual mileages.
When interviewed Mr Gray admitted that he had made up some records as he had not had a full set, though he had carried out the maintenance.
Mr Gray said that he’d had people helping him with maintenance, but record keeping had been a problem. With driver shortages at one time, he found that he didn’t have time and as no one came to check on them he became complacent and stopped filling in records other than intermittently.
When the VE announced his visit, rather than come clean, he falsified the records. At the time he was the only mechanic but he now had part time help and he had started putting bigger work to commercial vehicle repairers to give him time to concentrate on proactive maintenance.
Making the revocation and disqualification orders, the TC said that the records presented to the VE for the most part were fabrications. False documentation was produced for the purpose of misleading DVSA and to create a picture of compliance.
Mr Gray tendered to the VE records, which he knew to be false as he created them. He was prepared to deceive and mislead a public official in the exercise of his duties and to deceive the VE into concluding that the licence undertakings were being met.
Mr Gray did not act impulsively in tendering those false documents; rather over some many hours he had sat down and deliberately manufactured a set of records. She did not believe his claim that it was the record keeping he didn’t do and that he did do the inspections.
The prohibition at Perth Races suggested that a PMI of that vehicle had not happened for if it had the tyre would have been replaced.
