Shocking case of unlawful operation
Traffic Commissioner for the West Midlands, Miles Dorrington recently heard the case of Zlatko Mitrov and UK Vans and Parts Ltd.
The Traffic Commissioner heard that as a result of a DVSA stop of vehicle BG64 VNL (a 7.5 tonne flatbed lorry) on 27 June 2023 it was discovered that the vehicle had no MOT as it had expired in February 2022, the tachograph machine was not calibrated, the vehicle was not listed on any operator’s licence and the driver, Mr Zlatko Mitrov, did not have a valid driver qualification card because his driver CPC had expired in November 2019 and the tachograph machine was not being used. At the time Mr Mitrov is said to have told the DVSA stopping officer that the vehicle was owned and being operated by UK Vans & Parts Ltd which did not hold an operator’s licence. This was alarming and when interviewed under caution at the time of the stop he said, amongst other things, that he had owned the vehicle since 2020 or 2021.
He was prosecuted by the DVSA and was convicted of two offences; failing to use a tachograph record and no MOT for vehicle BG64VNL.
During the public inquiry, Mr Mitrov was asked how many miles vehicle BG64VNL had driven since the stop on 27 June 2023 by UK Vans & Parts Ltd. He told Mr. Dorrington that it was parked up, then he thought it might have been used occasionally but not for commercial reasons. The commissioner found that it was odd, given he was the sole director, that he did not know how much that vehicle had been used.
The odometer revealed that since the vehicle was put though an MOT on 13 July 2023, the nearest odometer reading to the stop on 27 June 2023, the 7.5 tonne flatbed lorry had travelled 27,931KM up to the date of the Public Inquiry. Mr Mitrov then claimed the odometer must have been faulty and the commissioner gave him seven days to obtain evidence of this from an MOT certified garage. The commissioner also said he would ask the DVSA to undertake an ANPR exercise for the vehicle for the 6 months before the public inquiry, with Mr. Mitrov getting a copy of the results in plenty of time.
No evidence of faulty parts was provided and the ANPR evidence showed that vehicle BG64VNL had triggered the ANPR cameras on the public road network on 61 different days in the past 6 months.
Mr Dorrington said, “Let me be clear, you do not (normally) take a 7.5 tonne flatbed vehicle out for domestic purposes; for a pleasure drive, to do your grocery shopping or to take the children to school on the school run etc. Such a vehicle is, on balance, only going to be used for over 27,000KM and/or on the 61 days shown on the ANPR cameras for commercial purposes.
“Looking at all of the evidence before me it is more likely than not that Mr Mitrov was untruthful to me about the vehicle’s use when he was confronted with the photograph of the vehicle’s odometer and when I subsequently robustly questioned him about it.”
Mr Mitrov had his personal restricted licence revoked, his application was refused and further to this, he was disqualified from holding or obtaining any type of operator’s licence in any traffic area, from being a director, partner or shareholder in any company or partnership that holds or applies for any type of operator’s licence for two years.
More details can be found here.