The owners of a Brentford refuse and recycling business have been banned from running vehicles for five years by the region’s Traffic Commissioner.

Jamie and Kellie Adamberry, who traded as Talking Rubbish, also had their operating licence revoked by industry regulator, Nick Denton, following a public inquiry last week.

The London and South East Traffic Commissioner said Jamie Adamberry had a long history of substantial non-compliance and ruled his personal conduct had been dishonest. He added that Kellie Adamberry had been exceptionally negligent in her management of the operator’s licence.

Investigations into the firm’s vehicle operations revealed:

• Adamberry had driven a HGV without the correct category of licence and did not hold the (mandatory) driver CPC qualification;
• A vehicle operated by the business was found to be 24% overweight;
• Adamberry was convicted for the above offences but failed to report this to the Traffic Commissioner, as legally required;
• The business operated more vehicles than it was allowed to. On several occasions, vehicle licence discs issued to other operators were used illegally (licence discs are not transferrable and can only authorise the use of vehicles by the business named on the disc);
• The business failed to provide records relating to vehicles and driving duties, another legal requirement

The Traffic Commissioner also noted Adamberry’s previous history as an operator, which included having one licence suspended and curtailed and another revoked.

In a written decision issued after the inquiry, Denton said: “I have reviewed Adamberry’s operator history and his long record of broken promises regarding better performance in the future. My conclusion is that he has been given many chances to run a compliant operation, instead of which he has consistently failed to make any meaningful improvement at all, and in many respects has got worse.

“Given his long history of substantial non-compliance and the dishonesty of his personal conduct I have decided to disqualify him from holding a licence for the period of five years. There was nothing positive to put in the balance when weighing up this decision, and Mr Adamberry’s failure to attend the inquiry has prevented him from suggesting anything.”

Turning to Kellie Adamberry, the regulator noted that while she was not directly culpable for the offences as Mr Adamberry, she had clearly been negligent in her management of the operator’s licence, allowing him to drive when not entitled to, taking no action to prevent the illegal operation of extra vehicles and making no effort to ensure drivers’ hours rules were observed.

He added: “She has completely failed to exercise any of her responsibilities as an operator: I conclude that there is no place in the industry for her.”

The Traffic Commissioner also revoked an operator’s licence held by Brentford Commercials and disqualified the firm’s director, Matthew Walsh, for three years. Mr Denton concluded that the firm had, in effect, lent its operator’s licence to Jamie and Kellie Adamberry to allow them to run more vehicles than authorised by their own licence.