Telford haulier in liquidation after licence is revoked

A Telford-based haulage firm has entered liquidation three months after it had its operator licence revoked at a public inquiry.

THR Parcels & Pallets entered liquidation on 24 June and insolvency practitioners from Birmingham-based Butcher Woods are now handling its affairs.

The licence holder appeared before traffic commissioner Nick Denton in January and according to the Office of the TC (OTC), it was revoked: “The licence holder, David Vowles, was also the transport manager,” said an OTC spokesman.

“He was found to have been loaning his licence disc for £120 per month to another company that did not have a licence to operate.

“This is illegal and undermines the whole operator licensing regime.”

Records showed that THR Parcels & Pallets’ operating centre was on the Hadley Business Park in Telford and it held a standard international licence for 20 lorries and five trailers up until March this year, when the licence was revoked.

The OTC spokesman added: “Mr Denton considered that a ‘competent and reputable transport manager would have known that to lend a vehicle licence disc to an unauthorised operator for money was to undermine the whole purpose of the operator licensing system’.

“Accordingly, Mr Denton found that that Mr Vowles’s good repute was lost, and he disqualified him from acting as a transport manager for an indefinite period.”

Butcher Woods did not respond.