It has taken a lot of work to get this far with Fry's, and I'm massively disappointed in Sheriff Beckett's report for not widening its focus as Cullen did for Piper Alpha and Ladbroke Grove.
@fimm I think you've got some mixed up chronology there. Arthur C Fry ran AC Fry Transport succeeding his father with the business, from Trerice - a farm at the end of a narrow Cornish lane. In addition Edward Fry ran a plant hire and haulage operation from the same base.
In 2010 Arthur Fry had his O licence revoked, his repute voided and was prohibited from managing a transport operation - it seems he did not appear, and the same month his name was on the application by Mark Fry (his son?) to hold the position of Transport Manager - a role requiring a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) It took 14 months and 2 scheduled Public Inquiries before the O Licence was granted for Frys Logistics with Mark Dry named as the Transport manager and a very clear condition attached that Arthur C Fry would play no part in the running of the new company (despite presumably still living at Trerice the company's registered operating base).
Then in 2013 just 2 years after the licence was issued to Mark Fry came the fatal crash. Within a month of this Mark Dry applied for a change of operating base - moving to Scarne, in a purpose built facility close to the A30, within 4 weeks that application was approved with no conditions or commentary (Alan Drummond, whose driver killed Barry Neve did exactly the same thing, moving from Canning Town to a site shared with several other small companies on the old Barking Power Station site - a location still used by Hayley Drmmmond who has the same Canning Town address as Alan Drummond and registered to operate HGV's just 3 months before Alan Drummond had his licence revoked... notice any pattern?).
Frys Logistics continued to operate and in January 2015 Mark Fry was prosecuted and fined for his own driving offences, uncovered in the investigation of the 2013 crash. Then finally, after steady pressure to get the case before the Traffic Commissioner Sara Bell held an Inquiry in November - Mark Fry did no show up and in his absence he had the O Licence revoked and was stripped of his repute.
Now there is a key issue which has been quietly ignored throughout this case - Frys Logistics were operating these trucks to deliver supplies for supermarkets in Cornwall - a contract for Lidl Supermarkets.
Now in the general sense it is a required measure for any corporate body to carry out due diligence when buying goods or services, as ultimately it is the principal client who should carry liability for all those with whom they sub contract for delivery of goods or services, and we have to then ask what due diligence, and monitoring does Lidl carry out for the contractors who carry their goods around the UK.
A question to ask - between May 2010, when AC Fry had their licence revoked and July 2011 when Frys Logistics slipped seamlessly into doing a number of contracts, including the Lidl one... who was providing the trucks and drivers?
I've asked Lidl for comment but nothing comes back so where from there?
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