Ban comes after Shabraz Hussain allowed his cousin to use his licence, and displayed ‘flagrant dishonesty’ to TC Nick Jones
Birmingham-based Shabraz Hussain, trading as KSM Cars, has been disqualified from holding or obtaining a PSV O-Licence for five years after his one-vehicle restricted licence was revoked by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton.
Mr Hussain had allowed his cousin Kashif Mahmood to use his licence. The TC also revoked Kashif Mahmood’s PSV driving entitlement and disqualified him from holding such a licence also for five years.
Both Shabraz Hussain, of Stetchford, and his cousin had been called before the TC but failed to attend the Birmingham Public Inquiry (PI).
The TC said that Shabraz Hussain’s licence was granted at a PI in June 2016. The PI was held partly because there were concerns that the application might be a front for a person who had had a licence application refused.
Mr Hussain agreed a number of undertakings at the inquiry, including one to the effect that he would keep full records of all income and expenditure as a PSV operator, and that employees would not be self-employed nor paid in cash.
Investigation
In September 2016 DVSA received a report from Birmingham City Council stating that Shabraz Hussain’s licence was in practice being used by a Kashif Mahmood.
A Council officer had attended the premises of Kingstanding Midland Regency Cars run by Mohammed Arif, whose PSV licence had been revoked in April 2015.
Mr Arif had showed her the file of driver Kashif Mahmood, Mr Arif’s brother, to whom according to Mr Arif any PSV business was given. In Kashif Mahmood’s file was a copy of the PSV licence held by Shabraz Hussain annotated with Kashif Mahmood’s driver number with Kingstanding Midland Regency Cars. An extensive list of the PSV journeys carried out by Kashif Mahmood was also in the file.
When interviewed by Traffic Examiner (TE) Robert Lees, Shabraz Hussain could not recall the registration number of the vehicle – he did not know where it was parked overnight and could not recall how he had obtained the school contract which his vehicle had been servicing, nor why the contract was in the name of Lawrence’s Garage rather than his.
Shabraz Hussain stated that a Mr Basharat, whom he had paid in cash, had driven the vehicle. Shabraz Hussain was asked in writing to provide vehicle maintenance records, details of contracts and daily defect reports but he failed to do so.
‘Always the intention’
Revoking the licence, the TC concluded that the real operator of the licence was Kashif Mahmood and that Shabraz Hussain had little or no involvement in it.
He said that there was no evidence that Shabraz Hussain, or anybody, ever arranged for the vehicle to be given regular safety inspections, or for drivers’ tachograph data to be downloaded and analysed.
Shabraz Hussain proceeded to allow his cousin Kashif Mahmood to use his licence to carry out work for Kingstanding Midland Regency Cars and Mr Arif, whose licence had been revoked. That that was always the intention was suggested by Mr Hussain’s trading name of KSM Cars.
Disqualifying Shabraz Hussain, the TC said that he was doing so because of his flagrant dishonesty in professing one thing to TC Nick Jones when the licence was granted and then doing the opposite, and in knowingly allowing the licence to be used by someone who had no right to use it.
Deliberate dishonesty
TE Lees had reported that he had stopped a PSV driven by Kashif Mahmood in October 2016 and found that he was using a photocopy of a PSV licence disc in the name of Imran Rashid. The photocopy was made up of two parts glued together to represent a genuine disc.
In making the revocation and disqualification orders in relation to Kashif Mahmood, the TC said that Mr Mahmood has used two PSV licences under false pretences, in order to operate his minibus as a PSV.
In September 2016 he was using the licence held by Shabraz Hussain, his cousin. When that avenue was closed off by Birmingham City Council’s investigation, he then photocopied a PSV licence disc held by Imran Rashid and falsified a disc by gluing the copies of both front and rear together. That was an act of deliberate deceit and dishonesty.
