Bus driver tried to dupe ADT

A bus owner had been given a two-year jail term suspended for two years for altering the registration and chassis number of two vintage buses, one of which was handed over to the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) to get a subsidy on a new bus.

Magistrate Giovanni Grixti heard how Carmelo Farrugia, 38 of Qormi, owned two buses - a Bedford and a Leyland.

He then bought a third bus, a King Long, to replace the Leyland.

Mr Farrugia filed an application at the ADT to be granted a subsidy on the purchase of the King Long bus. But to get the subsidy he was to hand over the Leyland to the ADT.

Mr Farrugia handed a bus over to the authority and in return he was granted a Lm32,000 subsidy.

But police later learnt that the bus given to the ADT was the Bedford which did not have registration plates but the chassis number had been altered to match that of the Leyland.

Evidence showed that Mr Farrugia had given the ADT the Bedford, his oldest bus, so that he could keep the Leyland which was in a better condition.

The magistrate gave him a suspended jail term and ordered that confiscation of the Leyland which had the illegal chassis and registration plates. He did not order that the Bedford be confiscated as it was in the possession of the ADT.

Police Inspector Stephen Mallia prosecuted.