West Drayton firms caught in fake lorry licence scam

11:59am Saturday 25th October 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

POLICE have warned dangerous lorries could be on the borough's roads despite busting a criminal gang which handed out bogus licences for heavy vehicles.

John Plummeridge and Philip Cameron were yesterday found guilty of fraud, having run a criminal network which organised fake applications for large vehicle licences.

Police have warned: “There have been, and still could be, dangerous vehicles on the roads both here and abroad as a direct result of the actions of this pair.”

After the guilty verdicts were handed to Plummeridge, 48, from Watford, and Cameron, 62, from Bushey Heath, Detective Superintendent Glyn Jones who ran to operation to expose them, said: “These men abused a system put in place to ensure everyone's safety with such a degree of arrogance that they believed they would never be caught.

“The scam they were running meant badly maintained lorries were on the roads and that can result in serious injury or even death.”

The men were exposed after a two-and-a-half year investigation found they had organised the fraud operation through a Post Office Box number in Watford, working as “transport consultants”.

Without any formal qualifications, the two men had been advising haulage companies on obtaining heavy goods licences, in some cases producing applications with false details to get licences fraudulently.

This led to a large number of poorly maintained vehicles coming to the police's attention, where the licence holder could not be found and details on a large number of licence led back to the Watford PO Box.

Two companies from Hillingdon, Rino Haulage Limited and Iver Builders Merchants Ltd, were found to be involved in the scam, with their directors using bogus licences for their heavy goods vehicles.

Thomas McKinney, 34, a director of Rino Haulage Ltd, was fined £22,000 for hiring fake licences on demand from Plummeridge.

Mohan Singh Bambra, 44, of Kingston Road, Southall, who was a director of Iver Builders Merchants Ltd, was guilty of five counts of using a fake licence with intent to deceive and has been fined £25,000.

Martin John Lavelle, 36, of Castleton Road, Eastcote, was also found guilty of making a false representation to get a licence and fined £500.

The activities of all five men were uncovered during the lengthy investigation into vehicles which were found to be unroadworthy and potentially dangerous.

Police raided five homes in London and in the South East in 2006, seizing large amounts of paperwork and computers which incriminated Plummeridge and Cameron, who had been known to police since 1998.

They were charged with fraud last year, and yesterday were found guilty at Basildon Crown Court, where they will return in December for sentencing.