A BUSINESSMAN has been banned from running his haulage firm after he failed to give drivers lunch breaks or ensure they had sufficient rest while on the road.

Stewart Rae, of Denny, near Falkirk, was stripped of his licence to operate Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) from his firm Micro Plant Ltd following an investigation by Scotland's Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken.

Ms Aitken also made an order to disqualify Mr Rae from operating vehicles for two and a half years, and refused to give his other firm, S & G Rae Agricultural Ltd and Forestry Contractors Ltd, permission to run vehicles from West Riverside Farm in Carron Valley.

Stewart Rae appeared before the Traffic Commissioner at a public inquiry earlier this year after investigators reported issues with his businesses.

Examiners from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) found that Micro Plant Ltd drivers had committed offences, including failing to take the correct breaks or sufficient rest while driving, and that the firm had no transport manager in place after April 2013 to oversee driver and vehicle safety checks.

A vehicle was also being kept at the West Riverside Farm site even though the company did not have permission to do so.

Miss Aitken heard that Mr Rae had borrowed licence discs from two other licence holders to cover work he planned to undertake with the new licence for S & G Rae Agricultural Ltd and Forestry Contractors Ltd.

However, this application had not been granted and operator licences are not transferable. It is illegal to lend licence discs.

Representations had also been made to the Traffic Commissioner about the firm's proposed use of the West Riverside Farm site on environmental grounds.

In a written decision issued after the hearing, Miss Aitken said she was not convinced that Mr Rae and his wife, Gwen Rae, who was also a director of the new firm, respected the law or other persons' rights.

The statement said: "Much of what happened with this Rae licence came from the desire to get contracts such as those available from Bam Nuttall - that is to get vehicles on the road ahead of being granted an operator's licence.

"Mr Rae put pressure on his drivers. Now pressure to get on and work can be the proper response and expectation of an employer, who after all is paying the wages, but it is not proper when it leads to drivers not having breaks or sufficient rest and having in one instance to cross the line into using Mr Rae's name.

"It is not proper when there is no oversight of drivers' hours or tachograph records."