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Bus bosses lied in fatal accident probe

by Adam Derbyshire
14/ 5/2008

BOSSES of a former bus company have confessed to giving false information about their drivers’ working hours to an official inquiry set up following a fatal accident.

Hadfield-based businessman Vincenzo Casale — managing director of Gorton-based GM Buses and the jointly-operated UK North — and former traffic manager David Ellis, 36, of Hyde, have both admitted conspiring to defraud the Traffic Commissioner by giving false evidence.

The judge, sitting at Manchester Crown Court, adjourned sentence against the two men until 4 July.

No further action will be taken against co-director Ernesto Casale, 44, who denied the same charge, although the case against him was ordered to remain on file.

Judge Martin Steiger was told the trio ran the bus company when 27 year-old signwriter Martin Pilling was killed after one of their vehicles collided with his cherrypicker crane on Wilmslow Road, Rusholme.

The driver of the bus, Krzysztof Ociepa, 46, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving last autumn.

Mr Pilling, from Worsley, had been erecting neon signs on a building from the top of the crane when the accident happened in November 2006.

His death triggered an investigation by the traffic watchdog and the bus company was subsequently ordered to garage its entire fleet of vehicles to ensure safety amid worries about its maintenance of vehicles, and the performance of its drivers.

Traffic commissioner Beverley Bell said Mr Pilling’s death had played no part in her decision, but raids by police and inspectors from the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency revealed a number of concerns, including that of alleged excessive driver hours.

Inspectors from VOSA who had swooped on the company’s headquarters issued prohibition notices on 16 of 28 vehicles they inspected, for a range of faults from problems with braking and steering systems to suspension defects.

As a result of that, a further raid was carried out in which police and VOSA inspectors seized documents from the Gorton Lane base, and 43-year-old Vincenzo Casale’s home in Meadow Field Close, Hadfield, Glossop.

The bus company went bust last year after the transport watchdog revoked its licence.