The disqualification was made after the Vehicle Examiner found that numerous documents had been fabricated during 2016
The falsification of maintenance records has led to the revocation of the licence held by Express Motors (Penygroes) and the disqualification of Director Ian Wyn Jones, who was responsible for the falsifications, from holding or obtaining a PSV O-Licence for 12 months.
Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Jones also held that Director Kevin Jones had lost his repute as a Transport Manager (TM), and disqualified him from acting as such until he had undertaken a three-day TM refresher course because the falsifications had occurred on his watch.
The TC revoked the licence of the associated Eric Wyn Jones and Jean Ann Jones, trading as Express Motors, on financial grounds. He delayed the implementation of the revocations until the end of the year to enable time for a new application for a 35-vehicle licence by Express Motors (Caernarfon) to be granted, and the registered local services operated by the partnership to be transferred over.
The company, of Penygroes, Caernarfon, with a 20-vehicle international licence, and the partnership, of the same address, with a 35-vehicle international licence, had been called before the TC at a Welshpool Public Inquiry. Traffic Examiner (TE) Sarah O’Brien said that in the investigation following the accident she encountered issues when trying to establish whether drivers’ hours, working time and tachograph legislation was being adhered to.
Kevin Jones was on the partnership payroll as a driver. As neither Eric nor Jean Jones seemed to have much to do with running the partnership licence, Kevin Jones was acting as TM for that licence though not nominated. Her concern was that he was acting as TM for both licences and acting as a spare driver for both. He did not keep any record of his actual duty hours.
Vehicle Examiner (VE) Phillip Bramham said that it was clear from the company’s PMI sheets that numerous documents had been fabricated and retrospectively added mainly through the period April to July 2016. When Director Ian Wyn Jones was questioned, his comment was that he couldn’t remember and he just shrugged his shoulders.
For the company, James Backhouse said that Ian Wyn Jones had resigned as a Director the previous week and was currently off work sick. The partnership operated bus services and the company the coaching side.
There was a realisation that the operations needed to be scaled back as Kevin Jones had been doing too much. There was no evidence that he knew about the falsifications. The intention was to have one 35-vehicle licence held by Express Motors (Caernarfon), concentrating on service work and school contracts. There was someone who was prepared to come in as a full time TM. Eric Wyn Jones was retiring and Jean Ann Jones was not well.
The TC said he expected recommendations made in recent audit reports to be put in place straight away. If there were no further problems he would not have a problem with a 35-vehicle licence for the new company.
