Kafkaesque traffic fines

No two ways about it - as soon as a warden or a traffic policeman points a finger at you it is cheaper to pay the fine even when you are innocent.

That is how those in power want it and that is how it has stayed up to now. It is lucrative to the local councils and the warden company, and that matters most.

The high proportion of cases is thrown out summarily by the Petitions Board is proof of the rampant abuse.

My wife was given a parking ticket when, never in her life had she been in the area in her car. She complied with instructions to ignore any summons to appear before the tribunal as long as the Petitions Board was handling the case. The unbelievable result was that the case was nevertheless heard in her absence and she was fined.

Neither the Petitions Board nor the tribunal did anything about this blatant injustice. My wife risked not having her road licence renewed for a fine inflicted in her absence and never brought to her notice.

Luckily, the impasse was resolved accidentally because of a chance encounter with the minister concerned. He solved the case most efficiently within 24 hours. All along, the Petitions Board had it within its power to correct its error. It did nothing in spite of our repeated protests.

I am now facing another summons for "parking along five metres from a corner or bend". My car was parked in a disused section of a road that is in a state of conspicuous disrepair. For many years, it has been cut off from the traffic using the one-way road system to and from the Ċirkewwa ferry terminus. It is used continuously and exclusively for parking, not by traffic.

I have photographic evidence that my car was not parked anywhere near any corner or bend in the disused road. Somehow, the Petitions Board is considering the case because someone must have referred the case to it.

As the aggrieved party I have asked to be allowed to state my objection and to submit the photographic evidence. My written request has not even been acknowledged.

My experience with these traffic summons is that the whole process is straight out of Kafka. It is perfunctory, undignified and disrespectful of the rights of the citizen. The uncorroborated evidence of a sole warden or policeman is accepted unquestioningly without any oath being visibly administered during the hearing of a case and without the warden/policeman being informed that he may be still under oath from some previous unrelated case.

I am shocked by the ease with which the tribunal accepts uncorroborated glib prosecution evidence as being somehow superior and more credible than the evidence of the defence.