A skip firm has been suspended from operating vehicles for a month by the region’s Traffic Commissioner, Nick Denton.

The industry regulator also refused to give Mr Skip Barking authority to run extra vehicles after hearing about vehicle and driver safety failings. His decisions follow a public inquiry into the company’s operator’s licence in July.

Denton concluded that vehicle defect reporting by drivers had been “dysfunctional” and found evidence that one driver’s practices had disguised the offences he was committing while working for the firm.

An investigation by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) also revealed that the business had not carried out any analysis of the hours its drivers were driving until March 2016, despite a legal requirement to do so. Additionally, vehicles were not given routine safety inspections on time and the company had been issued with numerous prohibitions and fixed penalties.

One of the prohibitions was issued when a vehicle was found with two loose wheel nuts.

Reaching his decision to suspend the licence from August 1 to 29, 2016, Denton also made an order preventing the company’s vehicles from being used under any other operator’s licence.

He also recorded two undertakings on the licence, for an independent audit to be undertaken by December 31, 2016, and for director Mohamed Reguig to attend an operator licence management course by August 31, 2016.