

A partner in a new haulage firm who claimed to have forgotten he was still subject to a disqualification order has been given the benefit of the doubt by a traffic commissioner.
Jason Poole and Paul Brown had applied for an operator’s licence for one vehicle, but when the office of the TC became aware that Brown was disqualified from acting as a director until August 2020, the partnership was called to a Cambridge public inquiry. Brown had been director of a business called P Brown Builders which entered liquidation in 2008.
He was made bankrupt in 2010 and was then disqualified from acting as a director between 2017 and August 2020 due to his involvement with another business, Brown Builders, which was liquidated in 2015.
In a written decision, TC Richard Turfitt said Brown had acknowledged he was the subject of a disqualification order, but that he had recently been engaged in a sole trader business and this had been successful and he had been fully compliant.
Turfitt added: “I am asked to accept that despite the negative history, Mr Brown simply forgot about the failure of his previous business, his personal bankruptcy and the director disqualification order.”
However, after the TC received evidence from the partnership of their compliance commitments relating to roller brake testing, driver and vehicle records and training, he concluded: “I am prepared to grant on the basis of those undertakings, with an inevitable warning that there must be full compliance going forward.”