The relationship between Commercial Vehicle Solutions (CVS) and Richard Lawson’s Spirit Auto Logistics and its successor Spirit Motor Transport was further explored on 12 December, when the trial of two directors and two of the management team of CVS, and Lawson, continued at Leeds Crown Court.
Last month CVS MD Martin Collins, sales director Richard Gosling and managers Bruce Lawrie and Tim Edwards, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defraud the Traffic Commissioners of Great Britain. Together with Lawson they also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defraud HGV operators.
The court was told that CVS provided Lawson with O-licence compliance management. However, the prosecution has claimed that CVS did not manage the fleet and instead provided O-licence discs for a fee.
Charles Heavens, transport manager of Autocar Logistics, said the company had supplied trucks to Lawson’s Spirit Auto Logistics on a sub-contract basis. When that company went into administration in July 2011 his company was owed £80,000 to £100,000, he claimed. At this point CVS was not providing O-licences to Lawson.
In June 2012, Autocar Logistics was approached to hire five trucks to Spirit Motor Transport, the successor to Spirit Auto Logistics.
The contract, which had a clause stating that Spirit Motor Transport would put the trucks on its own O-licence, was signed by Lawson.
However, Heavens said he was contacted by CVS’s Edwards who asked him to supply copies of the trucks’ maintenance history. He did this, and having spoken to Edwards did not believe it changed anything in regards to the contractual clause that stated Spirit would put the vehicles on its O-licence. When Spirit Motor Transport ceased trading Heavens claimed he was owed an additional £100,000.
Heavens told the defence that CVS was not party to his company’s agreement with Spirit Motor Transport. He could not recall CVS ever being mentioned during the negotiations. Edwards contacted him for the documents after the deal was complete.
The court also heard from Keith Hayden, development manager of Dawson Rentals, who said the company had had rental contracts with Spirit Motor Transport. He had assumed that Lawson held the O-licence.
Questioned by Mark Laprell for Collins and Gosling, he said that he was unaware of the details of the arrangement between Spirit Motor Transport and CVS. His understanding of what CVS did came from Lawson.
By Michael Jewell
