A Transport Malta examiner who exposed colleagues accepting payments from driving schools was cleared of accepting bribes himself.

Ian Pace, 43, from Paola, spent the past eight years on half pay pending the outcome of the proceedings after being arraigned in May 2006.

Motoring schools had paid bribes to three examiners to either pass or fail students, depending on whether they wanted to milk the candidates for more money, the court heard.

Mr Pace had initially been convicted of receiving small amounts of money as gifts.

He was interdicted and given a six-month suspended sentence, but appealed.

The Court of Criminal Appeal found that Mr Pace had not requested any payments but had received tips.

That, it argued, did not amount to corruption because the tips were given after the driving examinations had been held.

Tips were given after the exam was over

The court noted that the allegations against Mr Pace had been made by those involved in the corruption scandal, which he had revealed to the police in 2006.

The appeal court annulled the judgment and sent the case back to the Magistrates’ Court to be heard again.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale heard that Mr Pace was given small cash gifts after constant pressure from a particular driving instructor.

He noted that the evidence of those implicated in the case could not be considered credible because they had benefited from corruption and did nothing to stop it.

Mr Pace admitted to receiving small monetary gifts after he had completed driving tests.

This, the magistrate pointed out, did not constitute bribery under Maltese law because the payments were made after the act took place (the driving exam) and not before.

There was no evidence of corruption aimed at influencing the driving examiner.

Furthermore, the amounts of money paid were very small and there was no proportionality between what Mr Pace was given and the service he had rendered as a public officer, the court concluded.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.