Following an appeal on May 19 by Finesse Coaches, a decision by the deputy TC for the West Midland area, Miles Dorrington, to revoke the operator’s licence on the grounds of lack of professional competence has been reduced to a week-long suspension.
The original decision to revoke Finesse’s licence was taken following the company performing national and international work for over a year with no international CPC holder. The complication arose when former transport manager, Christopher Hetherington, left the company. Ajmar Singh, director of both companys, was understood to have become transport manager of Finesse and Thandi Transport.
While Singh was in possession of a CPC allowing him to work as transport manager for a domestic operator, he was unable to serve as manager of Finesse as he required a separate, international CPC. Hetherington argued he was unaware Singh was not in possession of an international CPC, and had he realised, he would have been happy to continue as transport manager.
Singh became transport manager of Thandi as planned, but Finesse continued to operate without anyone in this position. He assumed Hetherington had continued to serve as transport manager for Finesse, and claimed he would have given up Finesse’s international work regardless, since so little was done. He apologised for any confusion that had occurred.
Dorrington stressed: “there is no reason why Mr Singh cannot be transport manager for both (Finesse and Thandi). Any determination made against him informally in this decision is only against him as a director and not against him as a transport manager. There is no finding against Mr Singh’s good repute as a transport manager.”
Following the appeal, Dorrington announced: “We have decided the appropriate disposal is to suspend Finesse’s licence for seven days with effect from 2359 hours on 7 September 2011.”
