[2024] UKUT 267 (AAC)

The first ground of appeal may be dealt with shortly. A Traffic Commissioner has no power to suspend or curtail an operator’s licence where the Commissioner finds that a mandatory ground for revocation, as specified in section 27 of the 1995 Act, is made out. In these cases, the Act requires the Commissioner to revoke the operator’s licence. Suspension or curtailment of an operator’s licence only arise as possible regulatory sanctions (along with revocation) where a Commissioner acts solely under section 26 of the 1995 Act. It is of course possible for a Commissioner to find that an operator has contravened both section 27 and 26 and that is what the present Commissioner did. But that did not modify the Commissioner’s duty to revoke the operator’s licence once he had found that a ground for revocation specified in section 27 was made out. The first ground of appeal cannot succeed. Once the Commissioner had found that a section 27 ground was made out, it was not open to the Commissioner to suspend or curtail this operator’s licence.