Thousands of HGV drivers may be on the roads with licences obtained through bogus medical tests carried out in the back of vans, after a Swansea-led prosecution exposed a years-long fraud.
Andrew Eburne, 51, was jailed for four years at Swansea Crown Court for running Doctors on Wheels Ltd, a company found to have used unqualified staff to sign off drivers as medically fit.
The firm promised cheap medicals but instead carried out checks lasting minutes in laybys, motorway service stations and car parks across England and Wales, the court heard.
Eburne, of Hill Rise, Burbage, near Hinckley in Leicestershire, was convicted of participating in a fraudulent business in April and returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
The case was brought by Swansea Council Trading Standards, which launched its investigation after concerns were first raised by the DVLA.
Drivers applying for or renewing a licence to operate lorries and buses must complete a D4 medical certificate, confirming they are fit to drive. The test must be carried out by a doctor registered with the General Medical Council.
Instead, investigators found Doctors on Wheels handed applicants forms pre-stamped with the signature and GMC number of a doctor who had not taken part in the exam, the court was told.
The Morriston-based DVLA grew concerned about the forms and ran its own test-purchase checks before taking its findings to Swansea Council in March 2019. Trading Standards then made its own mystery-shopper appointments.
On occasions, the court heard, those turning up were not asked for identification, and the person carrying out the exam — who was not a registered doctor — would fill in the form without asking many questions.
Prosecutors said the value of the fraud was £681,699. In one case, an applicant was recorded as having 20/20 vision despite having a prosthetic eye; another was logged as having no hearing problems but was profoundly deaf.
Lee Reynolds, prosecuting, told the court the true extent of the public-safety risk would never be known, but said there was evidence medicals were not done properly and conditions were wrongly reported to the DVLA.
Sentencing, Judge Huw Rees said Eburne had flouted the rules in a “brazen and obvious way” and run a system that “served to compromise public safety.” He told him: “You were the founder and orchestrator of this misleading and dishonest system.”
Eburne will serve up to half his sentence in custody before being released on licence. A proceeds of crime investigation into his finances will now be launched.
Cllr Andrew Williams, Swansea Council’s cabinet member for development, said the sentence should serve as a deterrent. “There will be no hiding place in our community for those who engage in this kind of fraud that puts road users and the public at risk of harm,” he said.
He paid tribute to the trading standards officers and DVLA staff behind what he called a complex and important case, adding that their work had prevented the fraud “becoming a much more serious issue.”
