A licence application by a Melton Mowbray operator to run six HGVs and six trailers has been refused after the traffic commissioner (TC) said it had connections with a bankrupt.
BIFC Waste did not appear at an Eastbourne public inquiry (PI) to discuss its application, but in her written decision TC Sarah Bell said her office received an email before the hearing that she believed came from Daniel Freeman, who became the subject of a bankruptcy order in September 2022.
The email said: “This has been a complete farce from November and it is completely unacceptable, I will be going for a complaint to my local MP for a conversation with Grant Sharps [sic] the transport secretary to try and somehow help the DVSA and their corrupt ways.”
The TC said nothing further was received from the operator, which named as its director Jack Cox-Georgiou and proposed transport manager Jugraj Singh Sandhu. It had failed to lodge any of the documentation required for the PI and had not demonstrated financial standing.
TC Bell said an online check had found that Freeman was made bankrupt on 5 September 2022 and the email he had set up for his operator self-service access to VOL was the same one being used by BIFC Waste.
“A bankrupt cannot be a director without the court’s permission,” she said. “In light of the bankruptcy and revocation set out in the case summary, there is a possibility of ‘fronting’ in the future and this will need to be explored at that time.”
