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A haulier who was jailed for manslaughter after one of his drivers killed a motorist has lost his appeal against an indefinite disqualification. The Transport Tribunal concluded that his prison sentence was "richly deserved". The Tribunal dismissed an appeal by Martin Graves against the decision of Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown refusing to vary or cancel an order for his indefinite disqualification from holding an O-licence in any Traffic Area.

In April 2003 Graves, who  traded as M J Graves International, of Felixstowe, was sentenced to four years imprisonment for gross negligent manslaughter and to 12 months concurrent imprisonment for four offences of falsifying tachograph records. One of Graves' drivers, Victor Coates, was also sentenced to four years imprisonment for manslaughter.

The manslaughter charges arose out of an accident when a lorry driven by Coates collided with a stationary car which had broken down, killing the driver. It was the prosecution case that Coates had fallen asleep at the wheel and that he must previously have been aware that he was too tired to continue to drive. Records showed that he had started work at 0400 hours the previous day. He was still at work 20 hours later in flagrant breach of the drivers' hours and tachograph rules. The vehicle's tachograph records showed persistent falsification and many days on which there had been excessive hours of driving. Graves paid his drivers a bonus if they worked long hours,  which was illegal. Analysis of the activities of the other drivers working for Graves revealed that eight out of the 17 employed were routinely breaking the law in regard to drivers' hours. Four subsequently received terms of imprisonment and a further three were fined.

In June 2003 the then Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms revoked Graves' O-licence and disqualified him indefinitely from holding such a licence. At a fresh hearing last year Graves told Eastern DTC Philip Brown that his current business was that of a freight forwarder but that he was being held back by his lack of an O-licence.

In refusing to cancel or vary the disqualification order, the DTC said in his decision last August that the criminal activity and non-compliance with the O-licensing regime outweighed the positive factors. Before the Tribunal, Edmund Gritt, for Graves, argued that if the DTC had taken into account the many features favourable to Graves he would have concluded that the "objectives of the system" would be best served by permitting him to re-enter the system rather than by his continuing to be excluded from it.

The Tribunal said that this was one of the worst cases they had known of the disregard of the drivers' hours rules and regulations. It was plain that the jury at the Crown Court were satisfied of the causal connection between Graves' negligence and the death. The Scottish Court of Session in the 1999 case of Thomas Muir (Haulage) Ltd -v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions expressly mentioned that deterrence had its place in considering the objectives of the system and the public interest. They had no doubt that a clear message must go out that conduct of the sort perpetrated by Graves was wholly unacceptable.

No mitigating factors

The Tribunal considered that the disqualification was properly ordered. They were satisfied that cancellation was not appropriate and that the case for rejecting the application was overwhelming.