Scotland’s Traffic Commissioner, Joan Aitken, has refused to give two impounded HGVs back to a Dyce rental firm because she was not satisfied the business owned the vehicles.
Miss Aitken, the haulage industry regulator, also ruled that Rennie & Nicol Commercials Ltd handed over the vehicles to a person, Ian Hendry, who didn’t have a valid operator’s licence to run HGVs.
In a written decision issued after an Edinburgh impounding hearing last month, the Traffic Commissioner said:
“There were numerous clues which would have put an honest and reasonable person in the motor trade and road haulage industry on notice that something wrong was underway. [Rennie & Nicol Commercials Ltd] by delivering those vehicles to Hendry facilitated unlawful operation for without vehicles there could be no operation.
She added that the rental firm made no enquiries into whether Mr Hendry’s business was covered by an operator’s licence because they knew there was no licence.
“The motivation for [Rennie & Nicol Commercials Ltd] in all of this was to make money. That this has backfired on them is neither here nor there. It suited them to do a deal for Hendry.”
