Coach bosses lose licences over limo case
Two bosses of a coach company have lost their licences after helping a novelty limousine driver keep unsafe vehicles on the road.
Two bosses of a coach company have lost their licences after helping a novelty limousine driver keep unsafe vehicles on the road.
Fazal Hussain and Mohammed Arshad, who run Walsall-based Manor Buses & Coaches, loaned their operator discs to Darryl Williams, who ran Wolverhampton's Red Hot Rescue.
Williams also borrowed discs from Jeffrey Higgs, of Fordhouses-based Central Travel.
Rogue businessman Williams rented unlicensed and unsafe vehicles to prom and party-goers and was banned from driving and ordered to pay almost £9,000 after being caught out in a council sting.
Red Hot Rescue used converted emergency service vehicles as limousines, including a fire engine called The Oddity, which featured a dancefloor and bar.
Williams, aged 35, of Manor Place, Bilston, drove the engine without a private hire or Public Service Vehicle Operators licence for three years, and it did not have the correct MOT.
Following an inquiry into Red Hot Rescue, the West Midlands traffic commissioner Nick Jones investigated two companies that had been lending their operator discs to him.
Lending operator discs can be done if an operator has multiple licences. Manor, based in Florence Street, had eight discs, the inquiry heard. It also has a contract with Staffordshire County Council to run school services.
In his judgment Mr Jones said: "I find as a fact that Fazal Hussain had a close relationship with Darryl Williams and loaned the disc for more than the legally permissible period of 14 days. In any event Darryl Williams did not have an operator's licence and therefore was not someone who should have been loaned a disc in any event.
"I find as a fact that Fazal Hussain knew that Darryl Williams did not have an operator's licence." Williams lost his operator licence at an inquiry held by Mr Jones in July.
Mr Jones was today revealed to have ruled that Mr Hussain had lost his repute as a transport manager and no longer satisfied the requirement to be professionally competent. He was disqualified from applying for or holding an operator licence for 18 months from January 31 2010.
Mohammed Arshad had already lost his repute as a transport manager, and no further order was made. No action was taken against Jeffrey Higgs, who was found to have "a decent record" in all but his dealings with Williams, Mr Jones said.
