A Sunshine North bus company has had its entire fleet taken off the road following a raid by police and VicRoads last week.
The Dee Decker bus company, one of Melbourne’s original “party bus” companies, is alleged to have swapped number plates on its buses to keep defective vehicles on the roads after it was handed 11 defective vehicle notices in February.
VicRoads transport safety services manager Russell Greenland said officials had discovered oil and fuel leaks, steering defects and faulty brakes on a number of party buses, while school buses were found to have sharp pieces of metal where seat belts should have been.
“Certainly there was potential for those buses to have crashes and potentially catch fire,” Mr Greenland said.
He said finding such defects on buses used by small children was “really disappointing”.
A raid on March 22 found all 27 vehicles in the fleet were defective in some way, with police alleging the company tried to dodge the repair costs for the 11 vehicles found to be defective in February by swapping number plates.
The buses were each generating about $2000 a day for the business. The company faces a fine and possible criminal charges.
