At a public inquiry, traffic commissioner Nick Jones heard from DVSA examiners about a string of offences relating to vehicles owned by Andrew Hughes and Elizabeth Hughes. Some vehicles had serious defects, no MOT and were untaxed; others were unregistered and uninsured.
DVSA traffic examiner Jonathan Woodward told the inquiry that, during his 12 years in the role, he had never seen a more blatant, consistent, comprehensive and wide ranging disregard for road safety and legislation.
The regulator concluded that the pair had been engaged in “sustained and serious dishonesty and total disregard for the law”. They have each been disqualified until 2042 and had their licence to operate HGVs revoked.
Jones said: “Anything other than a very long disqualification will send totally the wrong message to compliant operators and industry.”
Neither partner attended the public inquiry.
One of their drivers, Christopher Jones, appeared before the traffic commissioner. He said that he had been told by Andrew Hughes to abandon vehicles when stopped by DVSA. He conceded that he knew this was wrong, but felt pressure from his employer to comply.
He added that Hughes was unhappy that he had given his employer’s name to DVSA examiners. The driver also told the regulator that very little maintenance took place on the vehicles.
Christopher Jones was disqualified from driving commercial vehicles for 18 months with effect from 19 June. The regulator said the ban would have been at least three years, but he recognised that Jones had cooperated fully with the inquiry.