Decision

Decision for Mo and Ab Ltd

Published 2 December 2021

0.1 WEST MIDLANDS TRAFFIC AREA

1. DECISION OF THE TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER

1.1 PUBLIC INQUIRY HELD ON 17 NOVEMBER 2021

1.2 OPERATOR: ABDULLAHI HASSAN SHEIKH ABDI T/A FIQI TRAVEL PD1098205 APPLICANT: MO AND AB LTD

2. Background

2.1 PSV Licence: Abdullahi Hassan Sheikh Abdi

Sole trader Abdullahi Hassan Sheikh Abdi has held a restricted PSV operator licence for one vehicle since December 2010.

In July 2021 DVSA vehicle examiner Wayne Bird carried out a maintenance investigation into the operator. Amongst the shortcomings he found were:

i) the vehicle was not being parked at the operating centre on the licence, but at a driver’s residential premises when not in use;

ii) no maintenance records for the vehicle were available;

iii) driver defect reporting was non-existent;

iv) the vehicle had failed its MOT twice (out of two presentations);

v) the vehicle was being used on a personal basis by the driver and the operator had no control over it.

While considering this report I received a request from Abdullahi Hassan Sheikh Abdi to surrender the licence.

2.2 Mo & Ab Ltd: application for an HGV operator licence

I also became aware that Mr Abdi was the sole director of Mo & Ab Ltd, a company which had applied for a standard international goods vehicle operator licence for one vehicle. I decided to consider both the existing PSV operator licence and the application for a goods vehicle operator licence at a cojoined public inquiry.

3. Public inquiry

The public inquiry was held in Birmingham on 17 November 2021. Present were Mr Abdi and Charlie Ahmed of Invergold Associates (a transport consultancy), representing.

3.1 PSV licence

Mr Ahmed explained that the PSV had not been used commercially since the Covid-19 crisis struck in March 2020, when the contract Mr Abdi had with Birmingham City Council for a school run had been terminated. Mr Abdi had found himself stranded in Denmark at the start of the lockdown and had given permission to a friend (the driver) to use the vehicle on a personal basis to travel to and from his work.

Mr Abdi gave evidence to the effect that the licence disc had not been removed from the vehicle because to do so might have created problems with its insurance. I observed that this was a different explanation to the one he had given VE Bird, when he had said that he had asked the driver to remove it from the vehicle.

Mr Abdi stated that maintenance had been carried out by AFJ Travel (“AFJ”), the stated maintenance provider, until the lockdown. Thereafter the driver had had the vehicle maintained by Hassan Motors: he accepted that Hassan Motors had not provided any maintenance documentation. I drew Mr Abdi’s attention to that part of VE Bird’s report which stated that he had spoken to AFJ who had told him that they had never given Mr Abdi’s vehicle any safety inspections: they had simply fitted a spare part on two occasions (in May and June 2021). Mr Abdi could not explain why AFJ’s account of what they had done differed from his.

I asked Mr Abdi why there was no maintenance documentation for the vehicle during the period from its specification on the licence (August 2019) until the lockdown in March 2020: ie before it had ceased commercial operation and been lent to the driver. Mr Abdi said that he had not been able to find the records after his return from Denmark. He added that Birmingham City Council would have checked that the vehicle was receiving its six-weekly inspections. I expressed some scepticism about this and eventually elicited the information that Mr Abdi was a sub-contractor (to Laurence Garages) and did not have a contract with the Council.

Mr Abdi accepted that he had presented the vehicle for its MOT in order to find out what defects needed rectifying. This explained its failure on multiple items.

3.2 Application for goods vehicle operator licence

Mr Abdi sad he was now driving HGVs and wished to become an operator. There were opportunities to work as a sub-contractor to Amazon and DHL.

I noted that the limited company’s bank statements, produced as evidence of financial standing, showed numerous items of personal expenditure. Mr Abdi said that he did not have a personal bank account. This was the one that he used.

Mr Abdi said that he was booked on an operator licence management course for the day after the public inquiry [he subsequently produced evidence of attendance].

4. Findings

I did not find Mr Abdi to be a consistent or convincing witness. His account of what happened to the licence disc in the PSV varied, as did his account of what maintenance the vehicle was given and who by. His initial account of contractual relations with Birmingham City Council did not stand up.

I find that there is in fact no evidence that the vehicle was ever given six-weekly safety inspections, even before the lockdown was imposed in March 2020 (Section 17(3)(a) of the 1981 Act refers). I was unimpressed by Mr Abdi’s statement that he could not find the records from AFJ: AFJ had explicitly told the vehicle examiner that they had not given the vehicle any safety inspections.

I further find that the operator has failed to fulfil his undertakings to keep vehicles fit and serviceable (the two MOT failures) and to ensure that drivers would report defects in writing (there were no defects reported on a 12 year old vehicle). Section 17(3)(aa) of the 1981 Act refers.

5. Decisions

5.1 PSV operator licence

Because of these shortcomings, and in particular because of the failure to keep his promise that the vehicle would be given safety inspections every six weeks, I have decided not to accept the surrender of the licence but rather revoke it under Section 17(3)(a) and (aa) of the 1981 Act. Because PSV services are longer being provided by Mr Abdi, the revocation takes immediate effect.

5.2 Application for HGV operator licence

Regarding the application for a goods vehicles operator licence, I noted that the prospective transport manager did not attend the public inquiry. I would have found it useful to be able to ask them questions about how they intended to exercise continuous and effective management and deal with Mr Abdi’s obvious shortcomings and lack of knowledge.

I am concerned that Mr Abdi, a company director, is unable to distinguish between the funds of the limited company and his own personal funds. The company’s resources are not an appropriate source of funding for daily expenditure of a personal nature. I find it astonishing that Mr Abdi lacks a personal bank account and simply makes use of the company’s. Both his accountant and HMRC are likely to take a very dim view of this practice.

Because of the above financial irregularities; because of Mr Abdi’s poor track record with his PSV licence, where his vehicle consistently failed its MOT and was not given the periodic safety inspections he promised it would be; and because the reasons he gave for this were inadequate and misleading, I am not satisfied today that Mo & Ab Ltd is of the necessary good repute for me to be able to grant it a standard operator licence. I note that Mr Abdi has attended an operator licence management course (on the advice of Mr Ahmed) since the inquiry, but this should have been done long before to carry more weight. It is a positive factor that he has now done so, but it is not enough to outweigh the negative considerations outlined above. The application is therefore refused under Section 13A(2)(b) of the 1995 Act.

For any application involving Mr Abdi to have more chance of success, I suggest that he separate his company’s finances from his personal finances and show a track record of such separation for at least three months.

Nicholas Denton

Traffic Commissioner

22 November 2021