...PCS UPDATE
and Emirates passengers at risk, but also his own drivers.
PCS was found guilty in November last year of car clocking and fined £250,000. Prison sentences were given to Murphy, his stepson, Paul Arslanian, his daughter Laura partner, Christopher Lunt who was the firms transport manager, head mechanic Trevor Jones and an MoT tester, Simon Williams.
Chances to convict Murphy earlier were missed because police and council offi- cers were allegedly worried about upsetting Emirates, the company’s largest corporate client and an impor- tant investor in the north of England.
A task force set up two years before Murphy’s conviction, which included the Metropolitan Police, a national vehicle crime agency and Manchester airport police carried out an intelligence opera- tion prior to stopping some of his drivers in March 2015 where they discovered insurance and licensing offences but failed to prosecute.
In a statement Solihull Council said: “PCS Events were failing to meet their legal obligations on both insurance and licensing”, yet PCS were allowed to con- tinue to carry passengers.
Bill Bowling from the National Limousine and Chauffeur Association has ques- tioned that decision. He said: “When an operator is found to be either unli- censed or not properly insured there is no option than to prohibit any further operations immediately and not give an extended time to become compliant.
“They were not dealing with a single individual who did not know the rules, but a major multimillion-pound compa- ny who appeared to be flouting the law.”
Under pressure from The Times, TfL eventually revoked PCS’s licence after Murphy’s fraud conviction in February last year.
Minutes from the meeting, written by an official from Solihull council and seen by The Times, noted that the Manchester airport police inspector was ‘worried about any reputational damage towards Emirates, the airport and the police’. The inspector replied: “During our conversa-
APRIL 2018
tion I did not commit to any involve- ment in this.
“I need to be clear that my stance remains the same that no airport resources will be utilised in targeting PCS/Emirates and no activity should take place within the Manchester Air- port footprint. This is endorsed by the Airport Police Commander.”
Yet, The Times also reports that one indi- vidual was threatened with arrest by the same police force for wasting police time if they continued to report PCS. The newspaper investigation also points a finger at Emirates for allegedly ignoring warnings about licensing irregularities and consecutive bankruptcies.
The Dubai-based giant also kept its con- tract with Murphy going despite his convictions for fraud, drink-driving and tax evasion. PCS also worked for X Fac- tor and even managed to win a contract to transport dignitaries at the G8 summit at Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh, in 2013.
Greater Manchester Police said: “Despite requesting details from the licensing official, insufficient intelli- gence was supplied to begin a formal investigation.
“We do not take corporate interests into account. We look at the impact of any police or other authority actions on the airport community including the travel- ling public. Any action must be proportionate to the intelligence. We believe correspondence could have been taken out of context.”
Emirates stated it did not request to see the criminal records of suppliers and added: “We received assurances that PCS Events Ltd held valid licences, and we refute claims we knowingly retained a supplier that did not have the neces-
sary licence to operate. We refute any inference that untoward personal rela- tionships were involved in the appointment of PCS Events Ltd and Sapphire Travel Management.”
In a statement to The Times, John Mur- phy stands by what was described as a licensing scam by officials, stating “the Scottish exemption was legal.” Murphy said: “Complaints made to Emirates, the police and licensing department at councils were by rival companies moti- vated by jealously.”
Further investigations into the back- ground of the PCS saga are ongoing, and will undoubtedly reveal more about the duplicity amongst certain individuals which allowed this level of criminality to stay under the radar for so long.
The attitude of so many people, when faced by investigators, was that car clocking is a minor crime that doesn’t harm anybody physically. But for clock- ing to have reached the scale and the magnitude carried out by PCS and not to have caused death or injury is nothing short of a miracle.
Further, the attitude of those same peo- ple when questioned about the licensing side of the business was similar: “So the company isn’t licensed properly. Big deal.” The fact remains that if the licens- ing anomalies surrounding PCS had been investigated and dealt with far sooner, the MoT fraud, invalidated man- ufacturers’ warranties and sheer volume of clocking would have been picked up and stopped. The insurance implications alone would fill the heart of anyone con- nected with the trade with horror.
This type of business is supposed to be run with a private hire operator licence, vehicle licences and driver licences all issued by the same authority. PCS did not have these – end of. It is a straight- forward situation, muddied and corrupted by human frailties of greed, ineptitude and buck-passing.
PHTM will keep readers posted on any further developments.
Original reports by Andrew Ellson of The Times and Chris Hargreaves of Licensed Transport Uncovered
65
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104
