Driver swindles Arriva of €11,762
A bus driver admitted in court today to having swindled Arriva of €11,762 by not remitting cash from the sale of tickets.
Manuel Ciappara, 28 of Birkirkara was jailed for 30 months after admitting to misappropriation.
He started keeping the money as soon as he began working for the company in March, Police Inspector Jonathan Ferris said.
He issued thousands of tickets to passengers and was caught out by audit officers.
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41 Comments
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David Willow
Jun 22nd 2012, 08:39
old habits die hard eh.....
Dee Williams
Jun 22nd 2012, 08:11
Could this also be the driver of a bus i caught .... I boarded a bus in Mellieha at 7.50 am going to Valletta several months ago, and there were several people before me. I paid him 1.50 for a day saver then when i got to my seat and went to put my ticket away i noticed the time said 5.54 am on the same day. I didn't question the driver but when i got off i took the bus number and telephoned Arrive and explained, asking them if they would like the ticket etc. The lady on the phone said no but it would be investigated, i left my phone number also but never heard from them. Now.. 1.50 isn't a lot but if he's doing this several times a day over a week/month he's certainly increasing his wage. Surely the takings of each driver should be handing the takings in at the end of their shift or in the case of late finishers the next time they're working. Bet he thought he was going to get away with it, serves him right and Arriva need to be making this clear to all it's employees.
Anthony Arpa
Jun 22nd 2012, 07:17
Mela biex dan ix xufier seraq daqsek flus fi zmien hekk qasir .... u jien nifhem li dan ma seraqx kollox kull ma gabar .... mela vera ghawn Malta il kumpanija tal Busses hi Minjiera tad Dheb .... mela vera is siden tal buses tal kumpanija li kellhna ... kellhom minjiera tad Dheb u tawa biss sieq.
Mr Vella
Jun 21st 2012, 22:23
Issa qed nifhem ghalxiex il-maggoranza ta CCTV on-board Arriva buses have been having stickers covering their lenses.....wow! And I've seen not just one!
John Spiteri
Jun 21st 2012, 20:43
The pay is criminal!
Daenerys Targaryen
Jun 21st 2012, 17:29
Do these people really think they will never get caught eventually?
Robert Grixti
Jun 21st 2012, 18:36
admit it, you would have unleashed your dragons on him if he was an employee of yours...
Franco Farrugia
Jun 22nd 2012, 00:18
@ Mr Grixti: Why? Are we going to now start praising people for their wrong-doings?
Rocco Camilleri
Jun 21st 2012, 17:26
All this means that when moral values are lost, human beings resort to do anything without feeling guilt. We have been hearing quite a lot of similar incidents, such as frauding peoples money, government and others. Most of these were done by young age people and sometimes also in high work positions . When things like these happen all the society will suffer because you will come to a position whom you are going to trust. May this will give a lesson to this guy and return the money to their owner. Audits should be done frequenltly to deter such things happen. One may remember the incident at the education department where a clerk used to keep the money paid by foreigners for himself. This all means that checks should be ongoing, because money sometimes blinds someone to become rich in a short time ( through theft).
KM. Psaila
Jun 21st 2012, 21:21
How did you assume that it is the youngsters to do such things. How come all the elders have to blame it on theyounger ones.
Rocco Camilleri
Jun 22nd 2012, 15:16
@ KM.Psaila.
Although one has not to generalise, probably all this show in the events which happened during these past years.
Jonathan Camilleri
Jun 23rd 2012, 09:37
Well, maybe he was motivated by the low wages that drivers are paid although swindling is a crime and obviously the system should be good enough to meet the interests of all stakeholders, including employees, customers and the company.
John J Borg
Jun 21st 2012, 16:04
similar story.............!!
http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16250349
...daqsxejn iprem!!!
Eddy Privitera
Jun 21st 2012, 15:41
He could have been an old bus driver working on the Gozo bus serrvice where bus drivers didn't give bus tickets, except on the Mgarr to Rabat and vice-versa, and asked passengers to pay as they were alighting the bus, without giving passengers a bus ticke- UNLESS THE PASSENGER ASKED FOR THE TICKET - thus keeping the money for themselves !
This went on for many many years without the transport minister or the minister for Gozo, noticing anything ! No wonder when the Arriva bus service started , the Gozo minister said that there was a very BIG increase in the number of passengers using the service !! OF COURSE, ONCE BUS TICKETS WERE ONLY REGULARLY (AND NOT ALWAYS, AS I HAD PERSONAL EXPERIENCE) USED ON ONE ROUTE !
Mario Sammut
Jun 21st 2012, 17:48
Just what the heck are you on about ??? The bloke is from Bkara so how could he do the old Mgarr to Rabat route in Gozo ? As always , you are always trying to implicate this government in everything. I wonder if your daily complaints will ever stop when your beloved Joseph Muscat and Lejber , labour themselves to power after waiting a lifetime . I will definitely be looking out for your usual diatribe when your ilk are in power !!!! And beleive me , you will get as much as you are giving now and a bit more .
laurent caruana
Jun 21st 2012, 18:13
Xi dwejjaq ta'nies....ad nauseum terga! Tina break Mr.
Eddy Privitera
Jun 21st 2012, 18:21
LAURENT CARUANA: LI KTIBT JIEN JIDHER LI MA DAQQX GHAL WIDNEJK, HUX ?
Joseph John Camilleri
Jun 21st 2012, 19:00
Rega' tkellem l-oraklu li jifhem f'kollox. Ara kif jistghu il-ministru tat-trasport u l-ministru t-Ghawdex ikollhomghajnejhom fuq id-drivers. Il-politika vera taghmik.
E. Tabone
Jun 21st 2012, 19:59
Eddy, I can say that I know of five (5) immediate family members out of a family of six (6), who started using buses in Gozo upon the introduction of Arriva and who NEVER used the buses before. That leaves....you guessed it...me.. who doesn't use it, as I now live in Malta. That's a representation of 83%. - Do your Maths now.
Stefan Zammit
Jun 21st 2012, 23:35
Eddy privitera, the santa sanctorum, future predictions are equally effective, and probably salso share the age group.
Anthony Arpa
Jun 21st 2012, 15:29
C.Hensel
i am certain that the Autorities are doing their homework to find out what is the difference between in what the old bus company used to pay back as tax and contributions and what ammount of fuel they use to use and what Arriva are paying back now . Also i am certain that the Autorities are making their homework why now arriva enployes appx 1300 workers when the old Bus Company used to works with a mucg less employies.
Franky Jones
Jun 21st 2012, 15:23
i had to shake my head in disbelief as soon as i read the article
Louis Craus
Jun 21st 2012, 16:29
Tiskanta b'xejn habib, ghax f'Malta kollox possibli
Charles Micallef
Jun 21st 2012, 15:22
I am not sure if it is ignorance or arrogance which caused this driver to act like this?
Maria Vassallo
Jun 21st 2012, 15:20
Il-hazen jaghmik!
Iz-zejt xi darba jitla' f'wicc l-ilma!
Alan Xuereb
Jun 22nd 2012, 07:44
kellu bzonn Maria, ghax ilna nhaffru zmien u ghalxejn qiesu.....LOL
Dunstan Crockford
Jun 21st 2012, 15:19
Very Hi Tech Arriva!!! This driver was surely not complaining about you or your service!
Alfred Fenech
Jun 21st 2012, 15:19
I know of at least a Lawyer who misappropriated funds. Nothing happened.
M Mealclaff
Jun 21st 2012, 15:14
I cant see why Arriva insist on still using Cash on Buses ... Why not just have an electronic Card which can be topped up from any Grocer ..
This is the case in London .. It saves so much time in boarding the bus..
So often in Malta one has to wait a few minutes whilst people pay for a ticket .. If its 2 minutes at each bus stop This can easily add up to 30 minutes late at the other end.
Amante Reale
Jun 21st 2012, 17:12
> So often in Malta one has to wait a few minutes whilst people pay for a ticket .. If its 2 minutes at each bus stop This can easily add up to 30 minutes late at the other end.
I have notice this as well and it adds up much more than people seem to realize especially in routes where it takes more than 2 mins each stop because of the large number of people waiting to board (such as in the case of Sliema... I can't speak for other cities to the north but I'm sure that with the summer upon us it will be the same situation for them as well).
People complain about how long it takes to get from source to destination but no one seems to point to this great cause of delays.
cesco di luigi
Jun 21st 2012, 19:16
In Gothenburg in Sweden 3 years ago, they introduced absolutley no cash handled by drivers. You can even get your ticket by sms- instructions at bus stops. you keep the message until the trip is over, in case of inspector...Now that's what I call hit tech. Arriva have basically retained exactly the same old ticketing system..actually it takes longer now to issue a ticket...
Paul Borg
Jun 21st 2012, 15:04
Could the previous bus drivers have been helping themselves to the kitty by not issuing tickets and honest people that pay tax foot the bill? If he got away for many months with it with all the controls a private company has what did the previous bus drivers do?
Lawrence Fenech
Jun 21st 2012, 15:29
@Borg.
The previous bus drivers where the owners of their own busses, not issuing receipts is still a cronic habit in most sectors.
Chris Vella
Jun 21st 2012, 18:20
Can you stop thinking of the old bus drivers now you have arriva enjoy it. They are doing a great job with subsidies still being paid that's the bill we’re still footing. And think that to get rid of the old system they were compensated. Now think all that millions splashed to find ourselves in a worst situation.
George Reeves
Jun 21st 2012, 20:29
Not all but a lot of the old drivers used to keep the change when it was only a few cents, give the wrong change with not even a sorry when they were caught out, and a couple of years ago I witnessed a French student being ROBBED of an old Lm1, I advised her to complain to the driver and after some clever handy work he gave her her change a second time minus Lm1 and once again I encouraged her to complain so in the end she eventually got the correct change for her Lm10 note. She left the bus before I did and we never came across a inspector or a police person or I'd have reported him and I told him so when I left the bus. If you didn't get fiddled by one of the old drivers it was your lucky day. As I said originally NOT ALL DRIVERS did this it was the one's that did got them all a bad name. The driver dosn't deserve a decent job if he do's this to his employer.
Criss Camilleri
Jun 21st 2012, 14:59
But I ask, 'Was this person, [the accused] given a PEA for a brain ? How can anyone swindle a huge Company from such a huge amount without being, one day, caught ? And, even you, Arriva, 'You're not really on 'your toes', for having caught this swindle after ALL these months.
c. hansel
Jun 21st 2012, 14:59
well done, really good news, in the old days no one would have known how much a Bus driver actually collects.
At least one good thing about Ariiva! Keep it going like this transparency is what this country needs.
Mr Kevin Zammit
Jun 21st 2012, 14:53
Is it possible to press charges against extreme stupidity?
Ann Welch
Jun 21st 2012, 14:34
Must have thought he was self employed......
George Attard
Jun 21st 2012, 13:55
a typical thing to do for someone who has 'something against the system' he probably went into that job just for that reason, now look where it got him! 13 months is a good lesson for being such an idiot.
Mario Borg
Jun 21st 2012, 18:58
It's 30 months. Bit steep for 4000 LM
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