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Having ran a company on a defunct O-licence in the past, the TC called into question whether or not she could trust a Liverpool Airport-based haulier. The answer was no. A haulier with 30 years' experience in the industry, who claimed he didn't know it was wrong to run a company on the O-licence of a business that had shut down nine years ago, has lost his bid for an O-licence for his new operation.

Liverpool Airport-based Land Air, trading as Overnite European International Express, had  applied for an O-licence for eight vehicles and two trailers. The North-Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell revoked the licence held by the previous company, Overnite European International Express, which was dissolved in May 2000, and reserved decision on the new company's application.

In her written decision, the TC said that a maintenance investigation revealed that there were no inspection records for two vehicles and that inspection frequencies stretched to 15 weeks on one occasion. There was a final pass rate of 25% at annual vehicle test.

There were nine stages when director David Hughes could have notified her office of the true position, but he had failed to do so. Hughes admitted that the continuation fee for the previous company's licence had continued to be paid. He also admitted that, as a new business, Overnight Europe expanded so he tried to apply for an increase in authority on the old entity, but that the bank statements submitted for Overnight Europe  were not accepted. Therefore, he had he tried to change the name of Overnight Europe to Overnight European International Express since a period of eight years had elapsed since the liquidation had occurred.

The vehicle examiner clearly had been told by Hughes that none of the vehicles were being operated and that while they were taxed, they were not insured. However, Hughes did reveal that one of the vehicles had been used and that insurance would be required.

An examination of driver defect reports and safety inspection sheets that were produced showed discrepancies that led to serious concerns about the records themselves. The driver defect reporting system was little more than a paper exercise, with real or very little meaning.

Hughes changed the entity of his operation on more than one occasion without telling the TC's office, yet he continued to operate the vehicles under the guise of an entity that no longer existed. The subsequent display of O-licence discs in the vehicles was nothing more than a sham. He deliberately misled the TAO during the eight-year period by purporting to change a name of one company to that of one he knew had gone into liquidation. He formed a number of companies all with similar names, and she was sure that this was done to make it appear to all those with whom he dealt that the same entity was trading when, in fact, it was not.

A deliberate sham

The TC considered that she simply could not trust Hughes as a direct result of his failure over an eight-year period to notify her office of material change, of the misleading of a vehicle examiner and of the failure to take a proactive approach regarding the driver defect reports.