Alfred Brincat writes:
I would like to ask if in the EU it is allowed to be booked for a non-existent offence and have to pay fines under such circumstances?

Should a commissioner of justice enforce this injustice? Is he empowered to do anything about it or can these people do what they please? Should such a victim have to appeal and go through all the hassle and waste of time and money to get justice done? Is there no other way out to protect an innocent citizen? And if there is can you kindly tell me what it is?

If am willing to furnish all the details and perhaps you can tell me whether this could be resolved through the EU Ombudsman or otherwise.

Unsurprisingly this is one of the most frequent complaints I receive and, needless to say, I find it shocking that people should be put in a situation where they have to go to a tribunal to defend themselves against offences, notably traffic offences, they have never committed.

More so in cases, such as this one, where the alleged contravention may well have never even existed at all.

Even if these are likely to originate from simple human mistakes, these incidents remain all too common with the traffic warden system and I hope that something can be done to address this weakness in order to avoid such mishaps in the first place rather than deal with them after they happen.

Too many people are still being fined erroneously and obliged to attend tribunal sittings to defend themselves when their charge should never have been issued in the first place.

Worse still, many people in this situation often simply pay the fine because they reckon that attending the tribunal sitting would cost them more than not doing so. So they renounce their right of defending themselves.

This shows a sense of exasperation with a system they consider as being one that either does not work or does not treat them fairly.

This can hardly be a good sign and I find it a grave injustice to put people in this kind of situation.

Yet, it must be clear that this is not an EU issue and therefore there can be no EU remedy to this situation. The EU has no competence over administrative systems, such as the traffic warden system, or even on the administration of justice within such a system.

This also means there is no remedy with the EU Ombudsman. The EU Ombudsman can only consider complaints against maladministration committed by the EU institutions themselves and not cases of maladministration within national administrations. The remedy in this case must therefore be sought at a national level.

In this regard, in January this year, the government announced the setting up of three petition boards to consider claims from individuals who have been charged with these kind of contraventions.

The boards have the power to stop proceedings and charges and may also order that a person be exonerated from paying a fine or other penalty, whether in full or in part, even after a ruling by the Commissioner of Justice.

Claims can be sent to the Petitions Board whenever someone feels there was an evident mistake of identity in one's regard or of the vehicle involved or whenever there is an evident mistake that leads to one being incorrectly convicted. Significantly, the Petitions Board may also pardon charges or rulings for humanitarian reasons or in cases where the charge was issued in an oppressive or manifestly unjust manner.

According to a government statement earlier this year, the Petitions Board was set up precisely to ensure that whoever feels that justice was not served "would not need to waste time" appearing in front of the tribunal to defend himself but may instead petition the board.

Petitions sent to the board must be filed with the registrar of the Commissioners of Justice by not later than 10 days from the date of the alleged offence or from the date from when the accused learns about the charges being made against him or her.

I find the setting up of these petitions boards as a very positive development. But since the announcement of this system is somewhat recent I suspect that very few people know about it and about their new right to petition against a charge issued by a traffic warden. It would therefore be good if information about these rights were printed directly on traffic offences so that people would immediately be aware of their rights and, in particular, to make this kind of petition.

Actually, this would not just be good, it would also be necessary.

I also hope this system has started to function well and it would be interesting to learn from the Ministry of Justice the number of persons who have used this remedy since it started operating this year.

Readers who would like to raise issues or ask a question to Dr Busuttil can send an e-mail, referring to this column, to contact@simonbusuttil.com

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