A transport manager has been disqualified indefinitely after she failed to tackle "very serious and repeated" infringements.
At an inquiry on 4 June 2014, traffic commissioner Nick Denton said Tina Domeney's near total failure to carry out her duties led to road safety being put at risk for more than two years – even though she knew about previous compliance issues.
The inquiry heard that analysis of drivers' hours and tachograph data revealed "critical" offences, with drivers regularly exceeding their permitted hours.
Domeney lent her name to an operator licence held by Michael Barrett, trading as Barrett Transport, who himself had committed many infringements, including driving for more than eight hours without a break.
He had recorded 31 infringements in 31 days of driving, the commissioner heard.
Safety inspection records revealed detectable defects, when previous driver defect reports had recorded none. Domeney admitted she left maintenance and drivers' hours matter to Barrett.
At a previous inquiry, undertakings to have roller brake tests carried out were made, but these had not taken place.
Barrett's operator licence in the East of England was subject to several undertakings when granted in 2012, because his partnership licence in the London and South East traffic area had been the subject of two unsatisfactory maintenance inspections.
"Ms Domeney has lent her name to the licence but has largely failed to perform the tasks expected of a professionally competent transport manager," said Denton.
"Such a failure is all the more serious because Ms Domeney knew that there was a big question mark over the operator's ability to comply – that was why the licence was only granted after a public inquiry and after the operator had agreed to a lengthy list of undertakings, one of which involved Ms Domeney personally," he added.
The degree of neglect in her duties, he added, was considerable.
Barrett's operator licence was revoked immediately, due to the loss of professional competence following Domeney's disqualification.