Scotland’s traffic commissioner has ruled that South Lanarkshire boat transporter Alistair Adams was moving goods without a valid goods vehicle operator’s licence.
The inquiry, held in Edinburgh on July 16, heard that examiners from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) impounded a vehicle owned by A Adams Haulage on June 5, 2014 in Lesmahagow. It had been observed transporting a boat by officers from Police Scotland.
The DVSA examiners could find no evidence of a valid goods vehicle operator’s licence for the journey.
Subsequent analysis of tachograph records revealed a number of journeys had been made in the vehicle between April 29 and June 5, 2015, with break and rest offences also detected for Adams as the driver of the vehicle.
Adams told the traffic commissioner that he moved boats around Europe and was on the road a lot.
He had a property in Blackwood and also lived in Varna in Bulgaria.
He had previously operated the vehicle through an Irish operator’s licence but then moved to Bulgaria.
A solicitor based there had helped him to set a company up and obtain a Bulgarian operator’s licence. However, that licence had recently been revoked.
He told the commissioner that he had stopped trading around six weeks before the hearing.
He claimed most of the work was private, individual transportation and that he moved boats on the basis that he lived in them.
Adams disputed the DVSA evidence that he was moving goods and therefore required an operator’s licence.
However, DVSA officers told the traffic commissioner that movement orders and tachograph records were at odds with private use.
Approximately 4,000kms (2,485 miles) were recorded over a period of 20 days, which the agency considered to be a lot for private use.
A senior traffic examiner from the agency said the use of the Bulgarian licence was a “flag of convenience” to allow Adams to continue operating.
He had previously been disqualified from holding a licence in 2009 (for three years) and subsequent licence applications had been refused.
The community authorisation issued under the Bulgarian licence was also found to have been suspended.
In a written decision, Joan Aitken said: “I am in no doubt whatsoever that the use of this vehicle was in connection with Adams’ established trade or business of moving and dealing in boats. To find otherwise would be perverse, especially given the long history which he has of undertaking such work.”
She said that he had not been using the boats to live in and was engaged in some sort of transaction for mutual benefit – which meant he needed an operator’s licence.
She also ruled that Adams was not the owner of the detained vehicle and therefore his application for its return could not be granted.
She added that a bill of sale produced at a hearing last month to prove he was the owner of the vehicle had been created for the purpose of his application. Only the owner of a detained vehicle can apply for its return.
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