In a case last year, Traffic Commissioner for Scotland Claire Gilmore refused an application for a standard international public service vehicle operator’s licence made by Mr James Kilpatrick .

The applicant has a lengthy history in operator licensing. Since 1998, he has been called to several public inquiries, been issued with warnings, lost his repute, had his licence revoked and his vocational driving entitlement suspend as well as being found to have used another operator as a front.

In December 2014, the Deputy Traffic Commissioner considered an application made by the applicant for a restricted public service vehicle operator’s licence. The Deputy Traffic Commissioner refused the application having concluded that the applicant did not have the required repute or financial standing to be granted an operator’s licence.

In 2021, he applied again, this time for a standard international public service vehicle operator’s licence. Despite Mr Kilpatrick having an existing and long-standing business, Phoenix Travel, he chose to apply for the licence in his own name as a sole trader. Phoenix Travel had already benefitted from substantial COVID grant funding from the local authority. Mr Kilpatrick however, created a new coach hire business in the name of J Kilpatrick t/a J Kilpatrick Coach Hire’ in the middle of the pandemic. He then applied for a bounce back loan in the name of that business. Mr Kilpatrick repeatedly asserted that he had done nothing wrong in applying for the funding that he had. He was adamant that he had stuck to the letter of the law. However, James Kilpatrick t/a J Kilpatrick Coach Hire was not an existing business as at 1 March 2020 which had lost revenue as a result of the pandemic. It was not, therefore, entitled to receive a bounce back loan. Had he disclosed that fact, the bank ought not have loaned him any money under the scheme.

The traffic commissioner said “This applicant has sought to hide behind trading names and obscure from sight his opportunistic exploitation of state backed crisis funding arrangements for personal gain. He has obtained large sums of taxpayer backed low-cost funding when he was not entitled to do so. He has done so whilst responsible operators in my jurisdiction have continued to strive to comply with the rules, operating in some of the most difficult circumstances our society has ever encountered. The applicant has, however, been caught out again.”

The commissioner also directed that a copy of the decision in this case should be sent to Action Fraud for them to investigate whether there has been any impropriety on the part of Mr Kilpatrick in applying for the bounce back loan in the manner in which he did.

Further details can be found here.

It’s great to be back in Warsaw, thank you again Mateusz for your characteristically warm welcome.

The reason I’m here is because Poland is absolutely critical to our collective European security and the lesson of the last 100 years is that when Poland is threatened with instability, or aggression on the borders of Poland, then we are all threatened and we’re all affected.

And I just want to be absolutely clear, when Poland is threatened then the UK stands ready to help, as indeed Poland has always stood ready to help the United Kingdom.

So I’m very pleased again to have the chance to talk to you Mateusz, you’re absolutely right in what you said. Much of what we talked about in November has come to pass and that’s why earlier today the UK’s 45 Commando Unit touched down in Poland.

And those 350 troops join the 150 British troops who arrived here in December in response to instability on the Belarusian border, and the 150 British troops who contribute to NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence, are standing shoulder to shoulder with our Polish counterparts to bring stability and security not just to Poland, but to Europe and I would say to the world.

I’ve just come from seeing Jens Soltenburg in NATO, where the message I have given, and the one the UK has been giving to all our counterparts, is that we need to work together now to achieve de-escalation and to persuade Vladimir Putin to de-escalate and to disengage.

And as we tirelessly pursue the path of diplomacy to bring an end to the tensions on Ukrainian borders, it is important to remember why we are doing this and why we’re putting together this package of sanctions against a possible invasion, why we’re doing so much to support and protect Ukraine.

And it’s exactly as Mateusz has just said – we won’t accept, Poland and the UK won’t accept, a world in which a powerful neighbour can bully or attack their neighbours.

And we won’t accept it because we believe all people – no matter where they are born – have a right to live safely, choose who governs them and to decide what organisations they aspire to have membership of.

Or, indeed, what bodies they want to cease being members of.

And we will not compromise on that principle.

It’s now more than 80 years Mateusz since Polish pilots came to my own constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip in West London to help my country in our fight for freedom. We stood side by side to uphold our values and our principles then, and we stand side by side today.

Thank you all very much.