A former Arriva bus driver has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for the misappropriation of over €3,000 from the company during the three months he worked there.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how Kevin Cassar, 45, admitted to the misappropriation of the money on and before January 2012.

Carmen Galea testified that she worked with the Malta Public Transport Services (owned by Spanish company Autobuses de Leon) and previously worked at Arriva – that operated the public transport service between July 2011 and January 2014 – when police had been called in to investigate Mr Cassar.

She explained how, each morning, bus drivers were assigned a bus that had a ticket machine. A pin number was required to access the machine that kept a log of ticket sales.

At the end of each working day each driver went back to the Arriva headquarters and deposited the money in a scan machine that worked using the same pin.

But according to records, Mr Cassar had not made any deposits during the three months he worked at the company, she said. She added that it was estimated that he took about €4,000. But an Arriva accountant, Patrick Cassar, said the amount taken was estimated to be some €3,255.

The magistrate heard how Mr Cassar admitted to the charges during the compilation of evidence against him and she appointed a probation officer to carry out a pre-sentencing report.

The probation officer pointed out that Mr Cassar had been given various opportunities by the courts to address his drug use problem but to no avail. An effective jail term was necessary so that he would address his problem.

After taking note of the report, the magistrate noted that Mr Cassar had several convictions over similar charges. In light of this, she handed down an effective jail term.

Police Inspector Jonathan Ferris prosecuted.