Third operator loses licence over false statements
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Using false statements to back up a licence application strikes at the core of the system, TC warns.
Mike Jewell reports.
AN EALING operator has become the third haulage company to lose its licence recently after attempting to pass off false bank statements as its own.
Edward Lavelle had his licence revoked and was banned from holding or obtaining a licence in any traffic area by the South Eastern & Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Christopher Heaps at an Eastbourne public inquiry.
Lavelle, who had been arrested, did not attend on the advice of his lawyer.
Detective Sergeant Rose of the Metropolitan Police told the TC that when interviewed Lavelle had answered "no comment" to all substantive questions put to him. He had handed in a statement in which he stated that he had no knowledge of any false statements The TC said a bank statement sent in with Lavelle's licence application in March 2003 included 15 payments and three receipts identical to those on a bank statement submitted by a Stephen Booth. The descriptions of some of the payments and receipts varied only slightly; other descriptions on the statement were identical.
A second statement submitted by Lavelle was also almost identical to another statement submitted by Booth. And the payments shown on a third statement submitted by Lavelle were almost identical to those on a statement submitted by a Tracey McLafferty The licences held by Booth and McLafferty had already been revoked and the operators had been disqualified indefinitely.
Holding that Lavelle no longer met the requirement to he of good repute. the TC concluded that the bank statements were false. The submission of false documents in support of the licence application struck at the trust that was, or at least had been in the past. at the core of the licensing system.