An appeal by a scaffolding firm against the revocation of its licence and the disqualification of its director has been dismissed after the operator failed to attend the hearing.
Victoria Scaffolding lost its licence following a public inquiry last September in Cambridge presided over by the deputy traffic commissioner (DTC) Nick Denton.
The DTC also disqualified company director Malgorzata Januszewicz for 12 months from being the director of any company holding or obtaining an operator licence.
The PI heard that the firm had demonstrated a “complete failure” to co-operate with the DVSA during a maintenance investigation and no records had been produced.
Records showed that the scaffolder held a restricted licence for three HGVs and operated out of Gerrards Cross.
The firm and Januszewicz appealed the decision and, according to the appeal tribunal, both appellants were informed of the date and time of the appeal and a questionnaire was attached to fill in to confirm whether they would be attending the hearing.
This wasn’t returned and so a follow-up letter was sent to the appellants to remind them of the date of the hearing. No response was received.
The appeal tribunal concluded: “In the absence of any communication from the appellants whether in response to the hearing notice or otherwise since the date it was sent and in the absence of any explanation for the appellants’ failure to appear and in the absence of any request that the tribunal determine these appeals in the appellants’ absence, they are dismissed.”
