Drunk HGV driver loses licence
Swerving driver caught in layby with bottle of whisky
News - Chris Tindall
June 2, 2021
An operator who claimed he had “a domineering father” who made him add a vehicle to his O-licence so that it could be operated by another company, has now been disqualified. TC Nick Denton said Simon Jewkes deserved to go out of business and that there was no place in the industry for him, following a virtual public inquiry.
A vehicle apparently belonging to Jewkes International was stopped by DVSA officers at Leatherhead, who found that its tachograph unit had never been downloaded, despite being on its licence for two years. Further inquiries revealed that the vehicle was not being operated by Jewkes, but had been rented out to a friend. Checks showed that the HGV had been registered to a company called Speedwell Transport, which did not possess an O-licence. The DVSA then discovered another vehicle specified on Jewkes’s licence had been registered to ASG Industries since 2014 and one of its directors was Jewkes’s uncle.
The enforcement agency concluded that the two lorries were not being run by Jewkes International and he was effectively lending his licence out to entities not entitled to operate. At the virtual PI, Jewkes accepted this was the case and that he had nothing to do with the vehicles.
In his written decision, TC Denton said Jewkes had claimed he had a domineering father who had persuaded him to put the lorry on the uncle’s licence. The other vehicle was rented out to help “a friend out of a pickle”. He had not considered he was doing anything wrong, but he now knew that to be incorrect.
But Denton said he did not accept this: “He was fully aware that he had specified vehicles on his licence but that he had no knowledge of or control over their maintenance, who was driving them, whether tachograph units and driver cards were being downloaded,” he said. “He cannot possibly have thought this to be acceptable.”
The TC said Jewkes could not be trusted to comply in the future and his actions constituted “grossly unfair competition against those operators who comply with the law”. He revoked the licence and disqualified Jewkes indefinitely as both a transport manager and a director.
