A burger and hot dog vendor was yesterday charged with being five metres short of the distance laid down by law to separate commercial outlets but a magistrate deemed the matter trivial and acquitted him.

Paul Sultana, 28, from Sta Venera was accused of operating his kiosk, Shiloha, outside the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology campus in Paola, within 50 metres from the closest commercial outlet.

His lawyer, Andy Ellul, pointed out that, as far as he knew, the college was not a commercial outlet although there was a stationer on campus.

He said that instead of checking how far the stationer was from the kiosk, they measured the distance between the kiosk and the college gates: 45 metres.

At this point Magistrate Antonio Mizzi asked the lawyer: “Do you mean to tell me that we are here on a matter of five metres?”

The lawyer answered in the affirmative and the magistrate promptly told Mr Sultana to move his kiosk a little further away and acquitted him.