Limousine company owner loses out at licence appeal hearing
A Lanarkshire-based limo hire company boss has lost her appeal to have her business licence reinstated.
1st Class Limos had its licence removed by the Transport Commissioner for Scotland after the firm was discovered to have been operating while in breach of a number regulations. An independent transport tribunal held recently sided with the Traffic Commissioner and upheld its previous ruling to strip the company of its licence.
The business ran into difficulties after it emerged that the owner had been operating for some years without a valid licence. The limousine hire firm was also found to have been providing alcohol packages for customers travelling in its vehicles without a valid liquor licence.
However the owner of 1st Class Limos, Lisa Raffety, argues that she has been made a “scapegoat” following new regulations which were introduced which made it difficult for limo bosses to operate within the rules. Ms Raffety added that until recently, it was “impossible to meet the requirements of the licence because the necessary adjustments could not be made to the vehicles.”
The former limo boss upholds that she wasn’t doing anything different to many other party limo companies, adding that these firms are now starting up new businesses under different names “so that they can’t be judged on their trading history.” The decision to remove her license has had a bad affect on the businesswoman as she revealed that she’s had to sell a number of her limousines.
