The director of Merseyside-based Alpine Scaffolding Services, who ran vehicles without licence authority after the company went into liquidation and drove vehicles without a driving licence, has had his application for an O-licence refused. Prenton-based Michael Rayner, trading as Alpine Scaffolding, was seeking a new two-vehicle licence before North-Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna.
Asked about the liquidation of Alpine Scaffolding Services in 2006 and why vehicles
had been used without licence authority, Rayner said he had been in business with his brother, who ran the office. They were advised to put the company into liquidation as a customer owed £25,000 and they believed the liquidator would have notified the Traffic Area Office. They purchased the vehicles and equipment off the liquidator and paid off the creditors. He and his brother split the business up and he had thought that his brother had applied for an O-licence on his behalf. The Deputy TC said he wanted to know why Rayner had not made his licence application until 27 October 2007 when he had been operating vehicles without authority in early October. Rayner said he had started on his own in about 2006 and it was about six months before he realised he did not have a licence. He had hired a vehicle and used it on his brother's licence, and had also used one of his brother's vehicles.
He added that when he first applied for an O-licence the paperwork was sent back three times.
He agreed that he had been convicted in October 2007 of using a vehicle without an O-licence, driving it without holding a driving licence, and obstructing a police officer in the course of his duty. Rayner said that when stopped he had given the police his brother's name, explaining that he panicked as he had never held a driving licence. He added that he had driven vehicles five or six times over the last five years, and agreed that he was still operating a vehicle without an O-licence.
Everything into account
The Deputy TC took account of the fact that Rayner had carried on operating without a licence despite being convicted last October, had driven vehicles without a driving licence, had given a false name to a police officer and had failed to declare the convictions in the licence application form.
