The Upper Tribunal has dismissed an appeal against the revocation of an international licence and a six-year licence disqualification, upholding the decision made by TC Joan Aitken
Linlithgow-based John Campbell has lost his appeal against the revocation of his international licence and his six-year disqualification from holding or obtaining a PSV O-Licence or from acting as a Transport Manager indefinitely by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Joan Aitken.
The disqualification came after Mr Campbell operated more vehicles than he had licence authority for.
Mr Campbell, trading as Vision Travel, of Linlithgow Bridge, Linlithgow, had appeared at a previous Public Inquiry (PI) in 2014 when his licence was cut from eight vehicles to four because of problems over drivers’ hours and vehicle maintenance [routeone/court report/29 October 2014].
In her decision, the TC said that the number of vehicles being operated on 15 January 2015 reached nine. Mr Campbell was not truthful at the PI and through poor record keeping he thwarted a true picture emerging of his operation. He deliberately attempted to mislead her.
He was responsible for the scheduling of vehicles on the week of 14 January, including 15 January and it was he, and no one else, who took on the rail work from Network Rail even though he had established school contracts, which needed daytime vehicles to service. He also undertook a private hire from Carrongrange High School to Edinburgh in the middle of the day.
Mr Campbell was well and truly caught out by the call logs kept by Network Rail. It was her strong suspicion that Mr Campbell had disregarded her curtailment order and very little had changed from 2014.
Other operators were deprived of the rail replacement work and he put the rail replacement company at risk of using an operator, which did not have the discs and authorisation to do their work [routeone/court report/June 2016/].
Before the Upper Tribunal it was argued that that the TC erred in accepting the evidence of DVSA officials about alleged use of excess vehicles. The TC had failed to appreciate that the school transport work was not within the scope of the EU driver’s hours legislation. The TC acted disproportionately by imposing a six-year disqualification order
Dismissing the appeal, the Tribunal said that the TC gave cogent reasons for accepting the DVSA case that eight or nine vehicles were used on 15 January 2015. They rejected the argument that the TC engaged in unwarranted speculation in finding that the events of 15 January 2015 were unlikely to be an isolated incident of non-compliance.
The background findings concerning Mr Campbell’s character, his lack of co-operation during the DVSA investigation, as well as the findings made in the 2014 inquiry, led them to conclude that the TC was not wrong to make the findings she did.
They also rejected the argument that the TC failed to appreciate that the school transport work was not within the scope of the EU driver’s hours legislation. It could not seriously be argued that the TC wrongly categorised this as a case justifying a six-year disqualification order.
