|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
A 50-year-old Dunedin
bus driver is incensed after his passenger-class licence was suspended by
Land Transport New Zealand (LTNZ) for a conviction he received 34 years ago. Dunedin Passenger
Transport bus driver Lloyd Walsh returned from his summer holiday on Monday
to find a letter from LTNZ saying due to the conviction, his licence would be
suspended and he would have no right of appeal, the Otago Daily Times
reported yesterday. Mr Walsh said he had
been a driver with Dunedin Passenger Transport for the past three years and
the suspension effectively ended his 29-year career. The suspension was
unfair on several levels, he said. "Thirty-four years
ago, when I was 16, I had a girlfriend I had been seeing for about a
year," he said. "We slept together
two days before her 16th birthday but when her parents found out, I was
charged with and convicted of carnal knowledge. I was sentenced to two months
in a detention centre. "It would be a
different story if it was rape. But because it was consensual and it was 34
years ago, I think it's a bit on the nose." Mr Walsh said he
trained as a bus driver when he was 21. When it came time for final approval
for his licence, the Ministry of Transport gave him a two-month probationary
P endorsement and would continue to renew it if he kept his nose clean. "I've kept my nose
clean since and they've kept renewing my licence until now, he said. If it
was good enough for them to give me a P endorsement then, why isn't it good
enough now." LTNZ media manager Andy
Knackstedt told the newspaper 36,000 drivers with P endorsements nationwide
had had their backgrounds examined in a bid to clear the transportation
industry of people who had been convicted of serious crimes. Mr Walsh was one of 400
drivers who had received letters last week, informing them their P
endorsement licence would be suspended when the Land Transport Amendment Act
took effect next Monday. Mr Knackstedt said
under the old legislation, no-one could be automatically banned from holding
or applying for a passenger class endorsement based on previous convictions. However, the new
legislation prohibited a person from holding a P endorsement if they were
convicted of offences such as murder, sexual offences and serious violent
offences. Dunedin Passenger Transport
operations manager Phil Boel said he had no hesitations about employing Mr
Walsh. He said it had ruined a
man's life "from something he did when he was a kid". "He's been a
valued employee, reliable and he's great with the passengers." Mr Walsh said he would
now take the matter to his local members of Parliament and the Amalgamated
Workers Union in the hope the suspension could be overturned. |
