A Swansea-based recycling and skip hire company has been stripped of its O-licence after its director was found to be a front for a revoked operator.
Crofty Point Metals was disqualified from holding an O-licence for two years after it was found to be running more trucks than it had permission for; carried out work for hire and reward under a restricted O-licence; failed to put vehicles through regular safety checks; and did not keep proper maintenance records.
Director Cameron Collis was disqualified from holding an O-licence for two years after he was found to be acting as a front for his father, Robert Collis, who lost his O-licence in May 2014.
Robert Collis received a three-year ban from holding an O-licence following a public inquiry (PI) in March, a recently released written decision has revealed.
Second director Ainsley Collis has also been disqualified for a year after her appointment was not notified to the traffic commissioner (TC) and it appeared she had no involvement in the business other than signing paperwork and invoicing.
TC for Wales Nick Jones found that the company had deliberately tried to hide Robert Collis’s involvement in the firm.
Robert Collis told the PI that a consultant had encouraged him to get his son to “front it” when he set up the business, which was refuted by the TC.
Cameron Collis told a DVSA examiner that he left everything to his father, including vehicle maintenance arrangements.
The DVSA noted that two trucks were being operated by the company, despite it having permission for just one, when an untaxed truck was seized in January.
It emerged that Robert Collis obtained a tax disc without a valid MoT to force the DVLA to release the vehicle. The TC said IT systems for taxation and MoTs are not linked, so there is no automatic check at the time of taxation.
The company did not have a formal driver defect reporting procedure in place; had no forward maintenance plans; did not download digital tachograph records; operated a vehicle with a defective analogue tachograph; and had no working time records.
Neither of the drivers, including Richard Collis, held a driver CPC.
A vehicle examiner said it would have been impossible to park vehicles correctly at the company’s yard, due to the amount of scrap and skips.
Jones said: “It is apparent that failures identified when Robert Collis’s sole trader licence was revoked have been repeated, including a lack of any effective maintenance and running more vehicles than authorised.
“These failures are rendered even more serious as result of the fact that there has been a fronting exercise, an endeavour to deceive me and keep the controlling mind of the entity holding the operator’s licence away from scrutiny of a traffic commissioner.”
