The boss of a multi-million pound travel firm has avoided a driving ban after he was caught using a mobile phone while motoring through Perth.
James O’Neil, who runs Edinburgh-based Blackpool Promotions and operates four hotels, successfully claimed “exceptional hardship” to avoid disqualification under the totting-up procedure.
The 58-year-old argued his business and its 200-strong workforce would suffer if he was banned from the road.
O’Neil appeared at the Justice of the Peace Court in Perth and admitted driving a Vauxhall Insignia on the A85 Crieff Road, at the Charolais Lane traffic lights, while using a handheld phone on May 5 2020.
After hearing of the company’s difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic, JP Paul Walker said it could be prejudicial to disqualify him by adding another six points to his licence.
He noted there were “very special and particular conditions”.
Riding out the storm
O’Neil, of Caledonian Crescent, Auchterarder, told the court he set up Blackpool Promotions in the mid-1990s after spotting a gap in the market.
He began organising coach trips to big sporting events such as Wimbeldon and the Grand National.
Now, the company offers all-inclusive holidays to the north of England, with a workforce of hotel staff, restaurant workers and sales advisors, amongst others.
O’Neil said his firm lost about £3million as a result of Covid.
“It was a struggle,” he said. “You just had to wait and wait for things to open up again.
“We could have gone bust and let everyone down, but we’re not that kind of people.
“We just tried to ride out the storm.”
He told the hearing he regularly drives to England to visit his hotels and supervise staff and managers, often setting off in the small hours of the morning.
Asked by his solicitor David Holmes if the trips were essential, he said: “Yes, because only I have the capacity and the vision to come up with things and ideas to bring new business in.”
He added: “Covid was like a war and when it comes to war, you need your generals.
“I had to take up that mantle.”
Asked by fiscal depute Rebecca Kynaston if he could contact staff via Zoom instead, he said: “Sorry, I don’t do computers.
“My generation didn’t grow up with computers.”
Ms Kynaston, who suggested O’Neil could take trains, planes or be driven south, said: “It seems that it would be more of an inconvenience for you to lose your licence but it would not be impossible.”
He replied: “It would be impossible to keep the business going at the level it is, particularly with the knocks we’ve had over recent years.”
O’Neil added: “I could change my hours and I could probably retire but that’s not fair on the people who rely on me.”
A strange world
Mr Holmes urged the court not to disqualify O’Neil, noting he was a “remarkably hands-on” director.
JP Walker told O’Neil Ms Kynaston had made a “number of reasonable suggestions”.
“But one of the benefits of the lay bench is outside experience in the private sector, rather than public,” he added.
“I appreciate the very commercial environment in which you operate and the perishability of the product you have.
“This is a strange situation which was compounded by an even stranger world that the pandemic placed upon us.
“On that basis I feel it would be prejudiced for me to take you off the road.
“I am going to recognise that exceptional hardship exists in these very special and particular circumstances.”
O’Neil was fined £375 and had six points added to his licence.
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