Collusion
In a recent public inquiry, Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney heard the case of transport manager Phillip Lee Edney.
Phillip Lee Edney had incorporated Harcourt Motors Ltd on 29 April 2021. The company lodged an application for a standard national goods vehicle operator’s licence on 26 May 2021 for fifteen vehicles and twenty trailers from an operating centre in Oxfordshire.
At the time, caseworker noted large payments to the company’s bank account from Daniel Cleaver and W Cleaver. These were questioned. Mr Edney responded, explaining that the large sums were loans from Francis William Cleaver and Daniel Cleaver. He that he had been working for A W Cleaver Haulage Ltd as a compliance manager and had realised there was a great deal of general haulage work available, but a lack of operators to undertake it.
The licence was granted as applied for and no vehicles were specified on it. On 9 August 2022, the trading name of AW Cleaver Haulage was added. On 7 December 2022, fourteen months after the licence had been granted, nine vehicles were added. Each had previously been specified on licence OH2019101 A W Cleaver Haulage Ltd until that licence was revoked on 5 December 2022, the company having entered liquidation on 5 October 2022.
Commissioner Rooney had previously disqualified Daniel Cleaver from being the holder of a goods vehicle operator’s licence in February 2019.
The commissioner heard that after an encounter with the DVSA, a maintenance investigation was triggered, at which it became apparent that Mr Edney was not in the business due to ill health. He provided a letter to the Examiner saying that he had passed his transport manager duties on to Darren Marshall-Deane. He had passed his director duties to Daniel Cleaver.
Mr. Rooney was concerned that the operation had been a pre-emptive phoenix for A W Cleaver Haulage Ltd from the outset and it was apparent from various police and DVSA encounters that both Cleavers were playing significant roles within the business.
Commissioner Rooney said “His ill-health coincides with the first vehicles being specified on the licence. He allowed the business to default on the payments for those vehicles leading to their repossession. He allowed a business to operate without an effective transport manager for a long period, somewhere between a year and eighteen months.
I find… that Mr Edney colluded with the Cleaver family to provide a means to continue the A W Cleaver Ltd business following its sad demise.
I find that Mr Edney knowingly made a false statement at the time of the application when he said that the new business was for new work. It is now accepted in written submissions that was not true.”
Having made a false statement which led to the grant of an operator’s licence and having failed to notify his absence from the statutory roles of director and transport manager for an extremely long period, Mr. Rooney found that Phillip Edney had forfeited his good repute as transport manager.
The full written decision can be found here.