A bus company which became the first to be prosecuted by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) for failing to auto-enrol its staff has lost part of its transport licence.
The Traffic Commissioner cut Stotts Tours' (Oldham) licence from 40 to 31 vehicles indefinitely, it was announced yesterday (1 May).
The bus company and its boss, Alan Stott, were sentenced in February at Brighton Magistrates' Court and ordered to pay fines of £27,000 and £4,455 respectively.
The employer pleaded guilty to a total of 16 offences of wilfully failing to comply with the law on workplace pensions in November – the first such prosecution by pensions watchdog.
Simon Evans, Traffic Commissioner for the North West of England, said the bus company “manifestly brought its good repute into doubt”, after director Stott admitted he had buried his head in the sand about pensions requirements.
Mr Evans expressed his disappointment that as the regulator of the bus industry it was an operator in this sector who had “so clearly failed in its duty”.
He said: “That Stotts became the first company to be prosecuted casts a shadow on the industry.
“My dismay is compounded because this case goes beyond a simply failure to comply with the law – since staff of companies such as Stotts are the very people whose interests an operator ought to be guarding and through the provision of pension schemes investing in their future.”
The bus company was called to a public inquiry before the Traffic Commissioner on 27 April.
Evidence provided to the Commissioner showed the business now has a pension scheme in place, staff had been auto-enrolled and back payments of employer contributions had been made.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
