A lawyer for troubled Co-Op taxis says the company is in a ?Catch 22? situation after the Transport Control Department suspended its operating licence for having too few cabs.

?You don?t take away the tools of a man?s trade in order to punish him when he?s trying to make ends meet,? Mark Pettingill told yesterday.

As previously reported, Co-Op was barred from doing business by the Public Service Vehicle Licensing Board ? which comes under the TCD umbrella ? because it does not have the 50 taxis required by law.

Sources said the company, which has its base in Dundonald Street, Hamilton, was handed a formal letter telling it to cease operations during a meeting with PSVLB bosses on September 6.

In a later press statement, TCD chairman Randy Brangman said the company had continued to operate despite having its licence suspended and warned it could be fined up to $1,400 for every day of non-compliance.

Co-Op appeared to be taking bookings from callers yesterday afternoon, telling a staff member it could provide him with transport from Hamilton to the Swizzle Inn in Hamilton Parish.

Mr. Pettingill, who is representing the company in a bid to have the suspension lifted, said the sanction was unfair.

Co-Op had been at the point where it was close to satisfying the 50-cab legal operating criteria prior to the suspension, he said. However, interested drivers withdrew after the operating ban.

?Under the law the board has discretion. At the time of granting a licence you must have 50 (cabs) and they did, a number of years ago. At the time of the raising of GPS issues they were in a position where they were going to sign up the minimum 50 drivers to the system and had potential drivers to sign up. What happened is someone came along and said they were a few short ? and I mean a few, as they had more than 45,? said Mr. Pettingill.

He claimed that the threat of suspension then circulated ?like wildfire? among drivers, and put them off signing up.

Mr. Pettingill has written to the TCD asking it to reconsider the suspension and asking for a response by the end of this week.

?They (Co-op) are in a real Catch-22. The request we have made on a reasonable basis is for us to go back to the board and have some reasonable discretion exercised to allow us to operate for a period of time,? he said, explaining this would allow the company time to recruit more drivers.

Mr. Pettingill said he felt TCD had been unfair in its treatment of Co-Op because he had information that the other dispatch companies in Bermuda were not fully complying with the law that makes Global Positioning Systems mandatory as of last month.

?The TCD has discretion, and the concern is they are exercising it unreasonably. It may be discriminatory if they are allowing others to operate when not compliant,? he said.

Asked if Co-Op was continuing to operate he replied: ?I don?t know, to be honest. The legal position is that they have been suspended.?

Co-Op taxi president Alaine Mouchette declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the TCD said: ?This is an issue of compliance. If this company is compliant with the law in this area, particularly the requirement to have a minimum of 50 cabs registered with their proposed dispatching service, then the Ministry expects that their application for a licence to operate as such will be duly considered by the board.?