A Cockermouth transport manager said he made the biggest mistake of his life after he was banned indefinitely from his industry.

Eric Nicholson, of EW & PA Nicholson - trading as Eric Nicholson Transport - tried to get around emissions controls on vehicles by fitting cheat devices on up to 16 vehicles.

His firm will also lose its licence in May and will be disqualified from operating vehicles for five years.

Mr Nicholson, who is a councillor for Cockermouth on Allerdale and Cockermouth town councils, said he'd made the biggest mistake of his life in arranging for someone to fit the devices.

Simon Evans, traffic commissioner for the North West of England, disqualified him indefinitely from acting as a transport manager. He also banned him from holding or obtaining a licence to operate commercial vehicles for five years.

In a written decision issued after a public inquiry last month, Mr Evans said this was as serious a case of the deployment of AdBlue emulators as he had come across so far.

He added: "The extent of usage in terms of the number of vehicles to which devices have been fitted, coupled with the length of time that the operator was prepared for this state of affairs to continue is alarming.

"It is manifestly the case that Eric Nicholson has conducted himself in a wholly disreputable manner, showing disdain for the regime.

"The loss of his repute as a transport manager is accepted as being beyond any argument."

The company holds an O-licence for up to 35 vehicles and 34 trailers.

Details of the incidents were revealed at the public inquiry.

DVSA vehicle examiner, Anthony Wilson, carried out an investigation after two vehicles were found to have emulators in a roadside check last August.

During a follow-up visit, he found evidence that four more emulators had been fitted.

Mr Nicholson admitted to Mr Wilson that 15 or 16 vehicles had been fitted with the devices.

For the company, Scott Bell from Backhouse Jones, said that it was a "generally compliant operation". The current management were unaware the devices had been fitted by Nicholson.

Nicholson said when the Euro-5 DAFs got to a certain age they could not stop the AdBlue light coming on. There was an ongoing wiring problem that they were unable to sort out and they had spent a "small fortune" to get the vehicles right, even replacing the turbos.

He said that he'd paid someone cash to fit the emulators, although did not know who he was.

Nicholson said nobody else in the family knew they had been fitted, adding that AdBlue usage per vehicle was not monitored. He claimed at the inquiry that about 10 or 11 of the vehicles were fitted with emulators.

He said he was aware that DVSA were looking at emulators as it was highlighted in Commercial Motor magazine and he had given instructions to remove them.

Mr Evans said: "Fitting emulators is a matter of trust; the words cheat and fiddle come to mind."

When the commissioner raised queries why second transport manager David Yates - who took up his role in 2014 - did not know about the emulators, Nicholson said: "It was something I didn’t want to make public."

Nicholson said he had been trying to keep the vehicles on the road without keep coming up with faults. He accepted he knew it was not a legitimate method. "It was a massive mistake," he added.

The inquiry heard that Nicholson and his wife hold shares in the company, and their son and daughter are now the directors.

Mr Nicholson was unavailable for comment.