Garbage truck driver dumped rubbish outside waste management site

The Court of Criminal Appeal confirmed a judgment in which a garbage truck driver, who emptied his truck at the entrance of a waste management site, was fined €2,330 and had his operating licence revoked.

Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, in the appeal court, said waste operators should set an example and follow the law.

"The management of waste material directly affects society in general and it is intolerable that an operator of waste ignores the law and the public because it is convenient for him," the Chief Justice said.

The Magistrates' Court had originally found Lorenzo Attard, who owned a garbage truck, guilty of depositing waste material at the entrance to Il-Qortin waste management site, limits of Xagħra, on June 28 of last year.

The court heard how Mr Attard had arrived at the site a few minutes after 7 p.m. at which point employees there told him that he could not enter the dump to deposit the waste because they were closed.

Mr Attard promptly emptied his load in front of the main gate and drove away claiming in the Court of Criminal Appeal that the waste had been left at the dump.

Chief Justice De Gaetano, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, said Mr Attard had not followed the regulations that governed the waste site and, therefore, upheld the ruling of the first court.