Family link to disqualified director wrecks licence hopes

A Birmingham skip hire firm has had its licence application refused after the son of a disqualified director attempted to resurrect his father’s business.

TC Nick Denton said he gave 21-year-old director Robin Johal credit for being frank and telling him RSJ Skip Hire was the same business as Skip 4 U, which had its licence revoked last year. However, the TC said that due to his young age and unfamiliarity with the role and responsibility of a company director, he had no confidence that Johal would manage the company independently of the influence of his disqualified father, Sukhchain Singh.

Singh was disqualified for two years after the TC found Skip 4 U had been “widely non-compliant”. Just 12 days after the revocation took effect, Johal applied for an O-licence in the name of RSJ Skip Hire, which had the same registered address and the same proposed operating centre. Johal said he had assisted Singh at Skip 4 U and his father would be employed at the new business, but only as a driver.

Following a virtual PI, TC Denton said he was not satisfied as to the fitness of the company and its director Johal to hold an O-licence, “given the connection to the revoked and disqualified company Skip 4 U Ltd and director Sukhchain Singh.”

“Reference was made to his ‘vast knowledge and experience of the skip hire business’, he added. “It stretches credulity that Sukhchain Singh, given this vast knowledge, will confine his involvement to driving.”