Pheasey decision reserved
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• North western licensing authority Martin Albu has reserved his decision against the licence held by Bakewell, Derbyshire haulier Herbert Graham Pheasey.
One of the company's vehicles, later proved to be defective, lost control in May 1992 killing a local lecturer (CM 12-19 January ). During the hearing, Constable Dammon Maye of Derbyshire police said the force did not consider Pheasey fit to hold a licence. In addition to convictions for using a vehicle with defective brakes and steering arising from the accident, Pheasey had also been convicted of using the vehicle without
tax. He had convictions for the fraudulent use of an excise licence and failing to ensure the return of tachograph charts within 21 days. The vehicle has been displaying an excise licence belonging to a vehicle which had been sold in southern Ireland. Twenty four tachograph charts were found in the cab.
The day before the accident, the vehicle had reversed over some steel and Pheasey believed he had damaged a cylinder on the back brake which was not working. The driver had
reported that the electrical wiring on the rear lights had been ripped off, but he did not report any problems with the steer
ing or braking. The accident vehicle was checked every fortnight, the driver was verbally warned about speeding the week before.
Pheasey said the unauthorised use of a vehicle in December arose as there had been no objection to the licence increase and he had thought that he was entitled to operate as the licence would come through automatically.
He agreed with the LA that he had not notified the convictions, or previous convictions in 1991, and that he had wrongly said that he had no convictions in the renewal application form. For Pheasey, Simon Vaughan said that the accident had occurred due to a combination of defective maintenance and driver error: it was a "blip" in an otherwise good record.