The Upper Tribunal upheld DTC’s decision after suspicions that Ms Orwell deliberately disclosed information at a late date
The decision of Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC) Miles Dorrington to refuse an application for a two-vehicle restricted licence by Chigwell Taxi Co without holding a Public Inquiry (PI) has been upheld by the Upper Tribunal on appeal.
The company, of Gravel Lane, Chigwell, whose sole Director was Samantha Orwell, applied for the licence in November 2015. Her ‘life partner’ Steven Festa was formally a Director of Chigwell Cars which was granted a licence in 2012.
It subsequently went into liquidation and was wound up on 2 September 2015 while owing of £45,001 to HMRC. The proposed operating centre for Chigwell Taxi Co was the same as that which had been used by Chigwell Cars.
In making the application on behalf of Chigwell Taxi Co, Samantha Orwell did not disclose any link at all between herself and Chigwell Taxi Co on the one hand and Steven Festa and Chigwell Cars on the other.
The application was made on the basis that she would, in addition to her existing taxi business, operate two 16-seat vehicles for the purpose of transporting passengers to and from airports and children to and from schools.
Various requests for further information by the Office of the Traffic Commissioner were not satisfactorily complied with. In the letter dated 9 August 2016, Samantha Orwell said that when Chigwell Cars failed she decided to take the opportunity to begin a new venture with the name of Chigwell Taxi Co, using funds left by her deceased mother’s estate.
She had taken advice from various people including Steven Festa. He would probably continue to offer advice when called upon but decisions would be hers alone. Steven Festa no longer had an interest in running a business.
Dismissing the appeal, the Tribunal said that it had never been asserted that the DTC ought to have held a PI. It was clear that the basis of his ultimate decision not to offer one was the belief that the failure to disclose any link to Steven Festa until a very late stage in the application process was to be regarded as deliberate or evasive, and that that amounted to frivolous or unreasonable conduct.
Clear questions had been asked of Ms Orwell on more than one occasion regarding any link between her and Steven Festa and Chigwell Cars.
It was significant that she had only ever disclosed anything about him at all at the very end of the process when it had been made clear to her that a decision was imminent and when it must have been equally clear that, without her doing something other than what she had done so far, that application was very likely to fail.
They did not accept her assertion that she did not realise that she was required to disclose anything about him.
Honesty and openness in the context of the regulatory process was extremely important. Without it the regulators’ task would be significantly more difficult, burdensome, time consuming and expensive.
