Too soon for smuggler to regain repute
Page 34

If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AN OPERA FOR WHO lost his repute after being jailed for eight years for drug smuggling and money laundering has failed in his bid for a fresh 0-licence. However, he has been told he may be successful if he tries again in a year's time.
Southampton-based Kenneth Roy Simmons received the sentence in 1999 for conspiracy involv ing the importation of cannabis and money laundering. Evidence was given at the trial that he had been involved in transfer ring money to Spain on three occasions The TC had to balance the seriousness of the offence and the while running a parcel sentence that had been imposed against the requirement for service to the UK.
Simmons to be of good repute. He recently sought a licence for one vehicle and one trailer before Western Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown at a Bristol public inquiry (CM 15 December 2005).
Refusing the application, and revoking Simmons' interim licence, the TC said that as a result of the conviction recorded against him in 1999, Simmons had lost his repute. It was now some six years since he was sentenced and apart from two fixed penalties for road traffic offences he had not since broken the law.
Simmons was remorseful and had been released from prison after serving half of his sentence, but it could not be forgotten that at the time of the offences he had been working in the transport industry.
The TC ruled that this operator had not yet re-established his good repute. However, if Simmons maintained his clean record over the next 12 months, Brown said he might then be in a position to look favourably at a new application.