Bus operators banned for life

THE men behind the infamous Manchester bus wars will never be allowed to run a bus company again.

Vincenzo and Ernesto Casale, both from Tameside, were disqualified for life by North-West traffic commissioner Beverley Bell from obtaining an operator’s licence.

The move was welcomed by the parents of 27-year-old signwriter Martin Pilling who died in 2006 when one of the Casales’ double-deckers crashed into the cherry picker crane he was working on in Rusholme.

The Polish bus driver had been working for 19 days without a break.

Tony and Diane Pilling sat through the public inquiry to decide the future of the Casales’ UK North and GM Buses companies.

The hearing was held only days after Vincenzo Casale, from Glossop, and his transport manager David Ellis, from Dukinfield, were each jailed for 15 months for falsifying records to hide the fact that their Polish drivers had been working up to 31 days without a break.

Mrs Bell praised investigators from the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency for their perseverance in uncovering the barefaced lies of the directors.

She said that if the firm had been allowed to carry on, road safety would have been compromised to an unacceptable degree.

After the hearing, Mr Pilling said: “We are very pleased with the way the traffic commissioner has used her authority.

“They ran that company for greed and profit and if they had followed the guidelines, our son would be alive today.”

Ernesto Casale, from Hyde, was also charged with conspiracy to defraud but the charge was allowed to lie on the file.

Mr Ellis and another transport manager, Colin Walker, had their licences to operate revoked and are unlikely ever to work in the industry again.

Mrs Bell said after the hearing that the prison sentence had sent a message to operators about the seriousness of lying about their records.

And she said that VOSA and the police were now working together to root out the rogues.

UK North had already hit the headlines before the accident when its battlewith Stagecoach for lucrative routes brought gridlock to Manchester as buses queued up to get into Piccadilly Gardens.