A bus driver who was yesterday convicted of threatening a tourist who had told him off for using his mobile phone while at the wheel is not only €300 poorer but risks being fired after a magistrate ruled he was “unsuitable” for the job.

The Italian bus driver, Antonio D’Antuono, 48, from St Julian’s, was also fined €20 for contempt of court after he smiled and laughed loudly while witnesses were testifying about his abusive behaviour.

Magistrate Carol Peralta, who called him “arrogant”, nearly lost his temper when Mr D’Antuono left the dock and took a seat next to his lawyer.

The man said it was the first time he had been in a Maltese court.

He was found guilty of verbally threatening a British passenger who had drawn his attention to the fact that he was using his mobile while driving.

Mr D’Antuono was charged with using a mobile phone while driving, failing to be in full control of a moving vehicle, blaspheming in public and threatening John Oliver Kane, who was, in turn, charged with offending the driver during an altercation. Mr Kane was acquitted.

I told him it was not safe to use the mobile while driving and he simply lost the plot.He started telling me: ‘I’ll hit you. I’ll hit you’

Mr Kane said that last October 29, he caught a bus to Mater Dei Hospital from the Buġibba bus terminus. During the trip, Mr D’Antuono threatened to hit him after he asked the driver not to use his mobile phone while driving.

He said he was told to “sit down and shut up” and the driver then stopped the vehicle so he could alight and smoke a cigarette.

When the bus got to Burmarrad, the driver did not open the bus doors, effectively trapping the passengers inside. He also hurled abuse at the tourist: “I told him it was not safe to use the mobile while driving and he simply lost the plot. He started telling me: ‘I’ll hit you, I’ll hit you.’ It was a very unpleasant situation to be in. I called a friend to tell her I was stuck on a bus and needed help,” Mr Kane testified.

At one point, Mr Kane said he realised he had given the driver €1.50 but was given only a 50c bus ticket and no change.

The driver insisted on testifying. Getting very agitated at times and at one stage kneeling down swearing he was telling the truth, he repeatedly said the tourist was “a liar”.

Unimpressed, the magistrate told him: “Can’t you see you’re making a fool of yourself?”

Mr D’Antuono said he had had a problem with the bus doors since six that morning and only used his mobile phone on the bus stop in a bid to inform the control room about the problem with the doors.

“I told him [Mr Kane] I had a problem with the door but he would not listen. He told me: ‘who do you think you are using your mobile?’ and I informed him there was a mechanical problem and I was trying to report the matter. He rang the bell and when I stopped he started yelling at me again. It is true I called him a liar but that is all I did,” the driver said.

Eventually, after 45 minutes on the bus, the passengers disembarked through the emergency exit.

Asked by the court whether he was often nervous and agitated, the driver replied: “I become like this when people lie.”

Mr Kane’s lawyer, Joe Giglio, said he was “flabbergasted” at how these scenes took place on Maltese roads. He asked Mr D’Antuono whether he was still a bus driver and he replied: “Of course, because I am a good driver.”

This led Dr Giglio to remark that he was he very surprised to learn that Mr D’Antuono was still working as a bus driver, adding that this was “ridiculous and worrying” and “put other drivers to shame”.

The prosecution told the court footage from CCTV cameras inside the bus showed the driver unsuccessfully attempting to open the doors and speaking on his mobile phone.

Magistrate Peralta found the driver guilty of all the charges, fined him €300 and ordered that a copy of the decision be sent to Transport Malta, saying the man was “not suitable for the job”.