A driving examiner who accepted €116 bribes to give learners a pass mark was handed a suspended sentence and a 10-year general interdiction after plea bargaining with the Attorney General.

He was one of five examiners implicated in the bribery scandal that rocked the transport watchdog in 2006.

Nicolai Magrin, a 40-year-old man from Sliema, admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for driving licences more than nine years after his arraignment.

The crime was committed when he served as a driving examiner for Transport Malta, formerly the ADT.

Mr Magrin admitted to accepting bribes to give a pass mark to applicants doing driving tests in and before April 2006.

During a sitting presided by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, the court was informed of an agreement reached with the Attorney General’s office following a plea bargaining exercise.

The magistrate sentenced Mr Magrin to a two-year jail term suspended for four years. He was also given a 10-year general interdiction.

Inspector Jonathan Ferris prosecuted.

In October 2006, a 21-year-old from Marsaxlokk was placed on probation for two years after pleading guilty to bribing Mr Magrin.

He told the court he had attended driving lessons for more than a year and had sat for the driving test seven times, failing on every occasion. The lessons had cost him over €2,300.

“It was the person who was giving him driving lessons who suggested that if he paid just Lm50 (€116) to the person carrying out the test, he would pass and that’s what happened,” his defence lawyer had said.

Later that month, a woman whose name cannot be mentioned by court order, was given a conditional discharge for a year after she too was found guilty of bribing the examiner.