A director of Edinburgh chauffeur firm Chauffeurline(UK) Ltd has been banned from operating passenger vehicles or acting as a transport manager for three years, for illegally running the business without a licence.

The company operated a fleet of 19 luxury vehicles, including six Jaguar XJL’s and three 16-seater Mercedes minibuses, and had contracts with a number of Scotland’s luxury hotels as well as the BBC, British Airways, P&O and Balmoral.

Director Graham Pender was also a director of Chauffeurline Coaches Ltd which did have a licence but which ceased trading in November 2014 after an associated company went into liquidation. Under these circumstances licences are not transferable between companies and the reason for the ban ordered by the Traffic Commissioner for Scotland.

Since the ban Pender has told the Herald Scotland newspaper he will appeal the decision, and his customer services manager George Devine has said that business for his customers would “continue as normal”.