Judge confirms sentence in driving examiners' case

The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday threw out an appeal filed by the Attorney General and confirmed the judgment handed down against two driving test examiners at the Malta Transport Authority.

In October last year, Jason Buttigieg and Roderick Galea were conditionally discharged for three years after they pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.

The two men were also generally interdicted and the Magistrates' Court had reasoned that this was already a bad enough punishment for the two men because they would not be able to hold public office for the rest of their lives.

The Attorney General appealed, arguing that the men abused public trust and their actions could have had very serious consequences as incompetent drivers could have endangered society by being given a driving licence.

He insisted that the men deserved an effective jail term.

However, on evaluating the matter, Mr Justice David Scicluna, sitting in the Court of Criminal Appeal, ruled that there was no valid reason to disturb the first court's judgement.

He dismissed the appeal and confirmed the original judgement.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Kris Busietta appeared for Mr Buttigieg and Mr Galea.