The licences were revoked after the TC found that the main occupation requirement had not been met over at least two years
Bolton-based Ace Minibuses and its sole Director have both lost their restricted licences, because the operation of minibuses was their main occupation.
Nayem Malu, trading as Elite Minibuses, and Ace Minibuses, of which he was a Director, both of Bolton and both the holders of a two-vehicle restricted licence, had been called before Traffic Commisisoner (TC) Simon Evans because of concern they were being operated as one.
The TC was told that Mr Malu wished to surrender the sole trader licence. His principle difficulty was in obtaining drivers. His intention was to concentrate on Ace Minibuses. It was accepted that the two licences had been run as one due to a misunderstanding.
Traffic Examiner (TE) Aidan McCabe said that he had visited Mr Malu in December and had suspicions that the two licences were being run as one business. Mr Malu told him that when he applied for the sole trader licence he told the Traffic Area Office (TAO) that he had a licence in the name of Ace Minibuses, and that his main occupation was a taxi and private hire driver. He was told that the sole trader licence would be granted. He had said that he was a Director of Ace, which was run by his wife and nephew, to preserve a school contract. He had said that he was not a shareholder in Ace.
The TC commented that it was not the case that Mr Malu was not a shareholder when Mr McCabe visited. According to Companies House, later the same day he was taken off the record as a shareholder.
Mr Malu said that when he spoke to the TAO he asked whether he could hold a sole trader licence as he was also running a company with a restricted licence and he was told that he could. He was currently working as a driving instructor. Ace had one vehicle and it was now only used for a school contract with Bury Council.
In reply to the TC, he maintained that he had instructed his accountant to remove him as a shareholder prior to the TE’s visit, saying that he had wanted to concentrate more on Elite and his driving school work. There were tax reasons as well.
After Mr Malu had said that the driving school was not part of Ace, the TC pointed out that in that case Ace’s main occupation was the operation of the restricted licence.
Revoking the Ace Minibus licence, the TC gave Mr Malu 14 days to produce financial evidence showing that the driving school was his main occupation.
Subsequently revoking Mr Malu’s licence, the TC said that he devoted more hours to driving school work than to the PSV business, but generated income much greater from the PSV business than the driving school work – close to four times as much in the financial year to 2017. In that period the profit from driving school profit was falling. The main occupation requirement had not been met over at least two years.
