No charges for west Auckland mechanic who had nearly 1500 WoFs revoked
No charges for west Auckland mechanic who had nearly 1500 WoFs revoked
A Waka Kotahi investigation found that Westcity Mechanical & Tyres in Henderson did not comply with proper vehicle inspection requirements.
This is stupid. They put 1000s of lives at risk, but Waka Kotahi claims it's not within their regulatory powers and the Police can be bothered to investigate. All that happened was they lost their authority to issue WoFs. That's barely a deterrent at all.
This is bad, I happened to be caught up in this indirectly as my WOF was due the same weekend the police invalidated all of these WOFs. I waited in a long queue for more than 2 hours in the hot sun...
Did get chatting to these guys that got ripped off though, they got no compensation. At the minimum this guy should have had to refund or reimburse those who are out of pocket due to his actions. Then a hefty fine on top of that.
I would be interested to see what the nature of the failure to comply with proper vehicle inspection requirements. actually was. It may have had very little real life safety impact (passing vehicles with dented sills etc that would not pose a danger to other road users) or a lot (passing vehicles with bald tyres or faulty brakes)
From my dealings with Waka Kotahi in the past I dont accept anything they say now without questioning it