An “impractical” Health Department provoked the ire of a magistrate who pointed out yesterday that wasting public funds was a very serious matter.

Magistrate Carol Peralta said he was fed-up with cases needlessly dragging on for years when the issues at hand were simple. He noted that procedural errors were also made.

He made the comments during the public health sitting when hearing three separate cases dealing with the running of two dairy farms and manure problems with a third.

At one point, the magistrate said in frustration his was “the courtroom of manure”, much to the amusement of the members of the public present. (The Maltese word for manure, demel, can also have pejorative connotations.)

Two of the cases in question began in 2003 and related to incidents in 2002. The third started in 2007 and was about incidents that happened in 2006. This was completely unacceptable, the magistrate said.

He told Health Department official, Malcolm Micallef, who was conducting the prosecution, that mistakes and impracticality amounted to wasting public money, which was very serious.

The first case dealt with Carmelo Bezzina, 61, from San Ġwann who was charged with running a dairy farm without a permit and allowing manure to seep into the street.

Despite the case dating back to 2002, the situation regarding a large volume of manure at the farm remained unchanged, veterinarian Anthony Gruppetta said.

Dr Gruppetta said that although Mr Bezzina had promised to ensure the manure would not seep onto the road when it rained, nothing was ever done.

Leafing through the acts of the proceedings, the magistrate noted that Mr Bezzina never turned up in court when asked to do so and had always to be brought under arrest. Magistrate Peralta found him guilty of operating the farm illegally and ordered him to stop the outflow of manure within three months. He will be fined €25 a day in default.

John Bezzina, 65, from Mosta, was ordered to remove accumulated manure and to cover a cesspit within two weeks or face a daily fine of €50.

He said that when the Health Department instructed him to fix the problem he applied for the necessary permits, which were refused by the same department.

In the third case, George Camilleri, 67, from Qormi was charged with running a dairy farm without a licence after his father, the licence-holder, died and the permit was not transferred.

Mr Camilleri testified that the transfer was never made because he had many brothers and he only inherited the agricultural lease.

He said that former rural affairs minister George Pullicino had sent him a letter saying that the farm could operate.

He added that never in the 35 years he had been running the farm had he ever had problems with the Health Department, adding that he treated the animals with far more respect than he treated any-one else.

The magistrate put off the case for judgment in February.