Wardens bound to advise offenders verbally

A legal notice has been issued obliging wardens to hand tickets personally when they book someone for a contravention.

The Parliamentary Secretary in the Home Affairs Ministry, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, explained that until legal notice number 350 was issued wardens could book people without the need to stop them, inform them, or actually give them a ticket.

They could just be driving by and from their car book someone who has committed a traffic contravention. This was unacceptable, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

The ministry had received several complaints on the matter and has taken the necessary action. The government was getting things in line in that wardens would now be obliged to physically hand over tickets, he said.

Now, everyone has to be notified, there and then, of the contravention, except for two exceptional situations: overspeeding and if the wardens are threatened and abused when they are booking a defaulter. In these cases, the wardens are still obliged to send the ticket by post within 48 hours.

It is not acceptable that a person receives note of a traffic contravention after months and does not even remember any details of that date, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

The ministry, he said, pushed for the change because it was not happy with the way the local wardens system was working and was trying to curb any abuse.