A haulage director in Purfleet has been disqualified indefinitely after failing to attend a public inquiry (PI) and explain his firm’s serious non-compliance.
Nick Denton, deputy traffic commissioner (TC), said his clerk had explained to Gheorghe-Dan Codrea that it would be better to attend the Cambridge hearing because it would give him an opportunity to argue against disqualification, but he had ignored this advice.
Denton said the limited company, Dani Codrea, was insolvent and on the point of entering liquidation and therefore revocation of its licence for four lorries and four trailers was mandatory.
The deputy TC said the operator had also refused to allow its transport manager to access the Office of the TC’s online database and relied on an unqualified maintenance provider, and there was a complete lack of brake testing.
Denton said transport manager Andreea-Alina Boca did appear at the PI, and while he concluded she had not performed to the standards expected of a transport manager, it was a result of naivety and inexperience rather than being deliberately negligent. He therefore found her repute was severely tarnished, but not lost.
“Mr Codrea’s failure to attend meant that I was unable to ascertain the precise degree of blame he bears for the serious non-compliance found with this company,” Denton said. “His refusal to co-operate with the regulatory process makes disqualification from holding a licence inevitable.”
