Property speculator Mark Gaffarena and a bus driver were yesterday cleared of assaulting each other in a road rage incident, with the court not finding enough evidence to back the charges.

Mr Gaffarena was alleged to have beaten up bus driver Younness Berrad and broken his spectacles in the tussle, while his own Paul and Shark polo shirt was allegedly ripped.

Details of the incident were sketchy, with Mr Berrad testifying that the incident took place in April 2015 but unable to recall the precise date.

As he was driving from Floriana towards the bus terminus, Mr Gaffarena ran a red light on the traffic lights, he told the court.

“I told him he should have remained stationary until I had passed him by. He was furious, though.”

Upon reaching the bus terminus some five minutes later, Mr Gaffarena boarded his bus and “wreaked havoc”, he testified.

“He beat me up, there was a lot of blood. Many people gathered and the ambulance and the police were called. I was trapped behind the steering wheel and couldn’t defend myself.

He beat me up, there was a lot of blood

“There was blood everywhere – you can see it in the video footage,” Mr Berrad told Magistrate Joe Mifsud.

Taking the witness stand, Mr Gaffarena said that he was driving past the Phoenicia Hotel and had stopped at the traffic lights. He denied running a red light but said he had to stop at the junction due to slow moving traffic.

“He was tailgating me and then he started to insult me. He said that if I wanted to say something, I should meet him at the Triton fountain. I told him I’d be there.”

Due to conflicting evidence, the absence of any CCTV footage and the fact that the precise date of the incident was not established, the court acquitted both men.

The said incident actually took place on May 20 and not in April, and the court could not help noting how the men recalled the incident as having taken place on two different dates almost a month apart.