A Stretched Limousine Hiring company in Kent has been suspended after 15 women were stuffed into a Limousine which didnt havt a COIF, therefore was only licensed for having eight or less passengers. The Limousine firm ‘Chapel Hill Limousines’ were licensed by the council in July 2009 for 12 months. The limousine in which they had crammed themselves into was a Ford Excursion Stretched Limousine which is mostly known for holding bigger parties; however was only licensed to carry 8 or less passengers. David crow who is 41 from Broad stairs was granted the operator license and was also granted the private hire vehicle drivers license in June 2009 which again was valid for 12 months.
In just January of this year, the council’s Licensing Department had received a complaint from a member of the public that 15 women had booked two limousines with the limousine firm to take them on a shopping trip o Harrods in London for December 2009. However, from booking two, only one Limousine arrived at the pick up point. The driver of the stretched limousine, Mr. Crow told them that only one vehicle would be taking them and all 15 of the passengers were taken to London and back in one vehicle. Within the limousine there were no way near enough sufficient seats/seatbelts onboard the vehicle, with this, some of the women were having to sit on the floor. One woman in particular described how four of them sat on the floor in the rear of the vehicle. It was so uncomfortable that they had to stop at Farthing Corner Services on the M2 for a break and to stretch their legs. From this she moved to the front of the Limousine beside the driver, but again had to sit on the floor because there is no seat.
From this job, there were booking records from Chapel Hill Limos and photographs were taken of the vehicle, Mr. Crow was interviewed under caution and confirmed that he was the driver of the Ford Excursion Stretch Limousine that night and that the booking records were not up-to-date on his system. From this, if the vehicle was to be involved in an accident that night, any insurance that was covering the vehicle would have been invalid due to the number of passengers onboard. The result from this is that both the operator, and driver licenses were suspended by the council on 28th January 2010. this was the subject to a right of appeal to the Magistrates court within 21 days which has now expired. Cllr John Kirby, Cabinet Member of Regulatory Services and Ramsgate Marina quoted ‘This is a case of where the council had no choice but to take action. Its no overstatement to say that peoples lives were potentially being put at risk here. There can be no excuse for taking passengers in a car where they don’t have enough seats of seatbelts. Imagine what could have happened had there been an accident. the consequences are too terrible to consider’
