A report by the Corruption and Crime Commission has said that a Perth trucking company handed out licences to hundreds of drivers without being adequately assessed. According to WA Today, the owner of Mines West Driving School, Pervin Narayanan was contracted by the Department of Transport to conduct practical driving assessment for heavy vehicles.
It is said that Narayanan was the only approved assessor at the driving school. The Corruption and Crime Commission found that the conduct of Mr Narayanan as an approved assessor was “corrupt”.
"The investigation revealed that Mines West identified a niche in the WA licensing market, and targeted a specific ethnic group, Indian immigrants - particularly those from the Punjab, and employed Punjabi-speaking staff to attract clients," the report said.
Report also says that Mr Narayanan did not conduct assessments and made false entries to the Department of Transport. He also did not carry out assessments on designated routes, trained and assessed two students in one truck at the same time and did not ask students to complete a theory test prior to their PDA.
"The investigation revealed that Mines West identified a niche in the WA licensing market, and targeted a specific ethnic group, Indian immigrants - particularly those from the Punjab, and employed Punjabi-speaking staff to attract clients," the report said.
The report also says that Mr Narayanan even counselled interstate applicants on how to appear to be a WA resident to obtain a WA learner’s permit and heavy vehicle licence and how to convert it to an interstate licence.
As part of the investigation, the Department conducted a review of licences obtained by people from Mines West facility.
The licences of 678 holders were suspended and 370 suspended licence holders were re-tested out of which 201 failed.
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