The company behind Europe's first fleet of tuk-tuks has had a £16,000 fine for not following its timetable reduced on appeal.

The Transport Tribunal, which published its report today, ruled the initial penalty was excessive and criticised the first hearing for allowing the taxi lobby to participate.

Frances Burton, chair of the tribunal, commented in her ruling: "We are however concerned at the conduct of the public inquiry which permitted party status to known hostile competition to both the concept and the actual operation of the Appellant's company's service, namely the taxi company lobby."

TucTuc Ltd's 12 motorised rickshaws are licensed to run on a strict bus timetable, stopping only at designated points.

In the initial ruling, the Traffic Commissioner found fewer than half of the scheduled services across Brighton and Hove were running some days and one rickshaw was stopped by police for carrying double the allowed number of passengers.

Traffic commissioner Christopher Heaps decided against banning the three-wheelers but imposed the maximum fine of £16,500.

But the company appealed, and yesterday Ms Burton decided to reduce the fine to £8,000.

She said: "The appellant deserves credit for recognising these problems at an early stage and taking steps to introduce a revised timetable more closely reflecting actual operating conditions.

"In the light of this, we have further concluded that the penalty should be reduced to a level which both reflects the start-up uncertainties facing this unconventional operation whilst focussing the appellant's attention on the need to achieve an acceptable standard of reliability in the future."

Director Dominic Ponniah said: "We are absolutely thrilled with this result, given the very low odds of success.

"It is a victory for common sense and for every small business that takes on the establishment.

"We are incredibly grateful to all our passengers and supporters for their contribution and generous support throughout."

The service has been off the road for the winter while new tuk-tuks are imported from India but Mr Ponniah said the rickshaws will be running again in April.