Southern Vectis who, in 1987, investigated the company and found their behaviour to be anti-competitive. It was alleged that Southern Vectis was engaged in "duplication", running buses immediately ahead of competitors' where routes coincided, and having their drivers lie in wait for competitors' vehicles in order to beat them to waiting passengers. In 1991, duplication tactics were seen again when Southern Vectis shadowed an Isle of Wight County Council contracted bus run by Norman Baker Taxis. In 1986, Southern Vectis acquired Newport bus station as part of their privatisation and refused competitors access to it. The Office of Fair Trading report, published
History of Torquay by the future Emperor Vespasian during the invasion of Britain in 43 considering his extensive actions in the South West, during which according to the Roman historian Suetonius: "He reduced to subjection two powerful nations, more than twenty towns, and the island of Vectis". No evidence has been found of Roman settlement in the area but Roman finds have been uncovered in nearby Totnes, Newton Abbot and on Berry Head on the opposite side of Torbay existed an Iron Age fort and a cache of Roman coins was discovered in 1730, including among others a coin of the Emperor Claudius