Mansel Davies: Licence revoked for forging records

The company, based in Llanfyrnach, employs about 300 people

A haulage firm that put "its employees and road users in danger" has had its licence revoked for forging vehicle maintenance documents.

A public inquiry was held after Mansel Davies and Son Ltd admitted 19 counts of fraud at a hearing last year.

The Traffic Commissioner said the Pembrokeshire-based company "deserved to go out of business" and "betrayed trust".

The decision will take effect from 1 February 2021.

The commissioner disqualified both the company and its directors David Kaye Mansel Davies and Stephen Mansel Edward Davies from holding an operator's licence again.

Rhodri Wyn and Stephen Mansel Edward Davies were disqualified indefinitely from acting as transport managers.

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The firm was found to have falsified maintenance records to make it look as if HGVs were being given regular safety checks.

One lorry's tachograph proved it was being driven when forged documents suggested it was in the garage being inspected.

The deception was discovered as part of a DVSA investigation in 2018.

The company pleaded guilty to 19 charges of fraud between October 2017 and February 2018 and was fined £380,000 at Swansea Crown Court in February.

A junior member of staff was also given a nine-month suspended prison sentence.

Jonathan Wyn Phillips received a nine month suspended sentence for forging the documents

At the public inquiry in Caernarfon in November, no one at director level took responsibility for the company's dishonesty. Instead they resigned as directors just days before the hearing and did not attend.

Traffic commissioner Nick Denton said that directors David Kaye Mansel Davies and Stephen Mansel Edward Davies had presided over a "toxic maintenance culture", and ordering a junior employee to falsify the maintenance records and the falsification itself were "disgraceful acts".

Mr Denton added the trust which he and the public had placed in transport managers Rhodri Wyn and Stephen Mansel Edward Davies "had been betrayed" and constituted "grossly unfair competition against those hauliers who run compliant maintenance regimes".