The return of a minibus which was deemed to have been used illegally for hire and reward was refused by Scottish Traffic Commissioner Gilmore on the grounds that it had not been proven that no hire and reward had taken place, and ownership could not be satisfactorily shown
On 23 October, Traffic Commissioner for Scotland Claire Gilmore issued her written decision in a case which followed the impounding of a vehicle, TUI 4951. The vehicle, a Mercedes Sprinter 516CDI with EVM minicoach conversion which was new to Airporter, Londonderry in 2011, was operated by Tabassum Hussain and was deemed to have been used for reward without the proper authority. The applicant is new to the PCV licensing regime, and had not held an operator’s licence before. However, his company, HZ Executive Travel, which was incorporated on 14 March 2023 and of which he is sole director, applied for an operator’s licence on 22 September 2023, and application which is still under consideration.
The background to the case dates back to 2 July 2019, when the applicant was the driver of vehicle WX56 HBP, a 16 seater minibus, which was subject to a roadside inspection. The examiner who carried out the inspection stated in his subsequent report that the applicant initially evaded officers who were trying to stop the vehicle. When stopped at Chester Zoo, the passengers who had been on board had already alighted, and the applicant told officers that they were his family and friends. When analysed, the tachograph data showed that the vehicle had travelled significant distances in the weeks before the stop.
Taking that information together with the large sums the applicant was found to be spending on diesel despite his claim that he was unemployed, the officer concluded that the vehicle was being used for hire and reward, and a pre-impounding warning letter was issued to the applicant, although no response was received.
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