The falsification of maintenance records, drivers’ hours offences and problems over main occupation has led to the three-year disqualification of Birmingham-based Kulvinder Singh Hothi from holding a PSV O-Licence after his one-vehicle restricted licence was revoked by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton.
Mr Hothi had been called before the TC at a Birmingham Public Inquiry.
Traffic Examiner (TE) Tracy Love said that Mr Hothi was working and driving long hours with his minibus and it seemed likely that that was his main occupation.
There was little concrete evidence that he actually did any work for Auto Haus Motor Comapny, which was said to be his main occupation.
Mr Hothi had been reluctant and unable to produce any time sheets. Although safety inspection sheets had been produced, these had turned out to be forgeries, with Mr Hothi having recently obtained blank inspection sheets from the maintainer and filled them in himself. Tachograph charts examined showed numerous, repeated and serious drivers’ hours infringements.
Mr Hothi was keeping no records of his supposed other work at Auto Haus. If his claimed 25 hours per week at Auto Haus were factored in, infringements of daily and weekly rest would be numerous and very serious. The vehicle appeared to be kept at his home rather than at the stated operating centre.
Mr Hothi said that he had made some mistakes at the start of the licence but had improved since. He worked variable hours for Auto Haus and was paid accordingly at the end of each month.
When the TC pointed out that the payslips showed that he was paid exactly the same amount each month, he stated that the pay was the same even though the hours varied.
The TC said that the payslips stated that payment was by BACS. Asked why his bank statements showed no such payments into his account, Mr Hothi claimed that, despite what it said on the payslips, he was paid in cash.
Making the revocation and disqualification orders, the TC said that Mr Hothi did not appear to have kept records of income from his PSV business or time spent on his stated main occupation as he had undertaken to do.
From an examination of Auto Haus timesheets and the tachograph records there were only two possibilities. Either Mr Hothi was working truly "Stakhanovite hours" far in excess of those permitted under the drivers’ hours and working time rules, or the hours listed for Auto Haus were a work of fiction.
The timesheets presented for November and December 2017 and January 2018 always add up exactly to 108.33 hours, which was unlikely.
Some timesheets read in conjunction with the tachograph records showed Mr Hothi to be working impossibly long hours and, in at least one instance, to have been working for Auto Haus at the same time as he was driving the minibus.
