Coach firm boss loses bus licence

THE son of a former coach firm boss has been banned from operating buses two years after his father was found guilty of falsifying drivers' records.

Scottish Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken revoked James Brown's licence after investigating his firm, Forth Travel, ruling that it was an attempt to revive his father's business, Browns of Edinburgh.

The Broxburn-based firm's owner Alistair Brown, who started the business in 1965, was banned from holding a public service vehicle operator licence for four years, after a public inquiry in 2008.

His son had then set up his own firm with the help of his nephew, but following a public inquiry last month, Ms Aitken has now decided it to be a "phoenix", a company set up out of the collapse of another.

She also said investigations had discovered the firm was being run by Alistair Brown along with James Reilly, a former Browns driver.

She said: "The whole impression created by Mr (James] Brown at the public inquiry was of not knowing his own business and of being hesitant in his replies and very much lacking in straightforwardness.

"I consider that the business is being run by Mr Alistair Brown and by Mr James Reilly who has a background in PCV (Passenger Carrying Vehicles) driving and as a transport manager.

"All in all, the impression I got of Mr James Brown was that he was a man who had much to hide.

"It is beyond reasonable doubt that this application is a phoenix for the continuation of Browns of Edinburgh."

A former taxi driver, James Brown's coach firm provided private hires for football and rugby clubs as well as some tour work.

When approached for comment by the Evening News, he said: "We've just received the information (from the commissioner) and will be taking time to review the decision with our legal team."

The investigation into his father's firm, Browns, started in 2006 when the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) received a complaint from an aggrieved ex-driver that the operator had been using ghost names on tachograph charts to hide drivers' hours offences.

It was said that drivers handed in tachograph charts and time sheets and were paid off the sheets.

It was alleged there were weekly and daily rest offences with the whistleblower giving examples of the offences.

One such example was that passengers would be dropped off at their London hotel and the driver would drive back to base that night.

On the drive north, the driver would stop at a motorway service station, remove his chart, insert a blank chart and drive back to base. At the office, a ghost name would be entered.