Speed camera on St Paul’s Bay bypass. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

There has been a huge increase in the number of speeding tickets being issued.

Drivers were caught out by speed cameras nearly 50,000 times between January and October last year, far in excess of the roughly 15,000 for the whole of 2013.

This destroys any perception there may have been that the authorities were taking a lenient approach to the enforcement of speed limits.

A two-tier fine system is in place, with violations of up to 15km/h above the limit resulting in a fine of €34.94 and higher speeds incurring double the penalty: €69.88.

Enforcement of the speed limits, the maximum being 80km/h, is carried out through a network of 20 speed cameras installed on several major roads.

It is not just the number of speeding offences that has gone up but a general increase has been registered in contraventions spotted by local wardens, the police, Transport Malta and the Education Ministry.

According to data provided by the Justice Ministry, in the first 10 months of last year 259,624 tickets were issued by the various authorities, exceeding the total for 2013, which stood at 250,623, and already at par with the 2012 figure of 259,674.

Figures destroy any perception authorities were being lenient

The majority of last year’s tickets, 137,238, were issued by wardens. Another 73,218 came as a result of CCTV and speed cameras, while the police doled out 43,845 tickets.

Transport Malta issued 2,498 tickets and a total of 2,825 truancy fines were imposed by the Education Ministry.

The figures, however, include fines withdrawn or revoked following a successful legal challenge in a local tribunal.

Illegal parking was the most common contravention, accounting for 70,577 fines up to the end of October. Next on the list are speeding offences followed closely by tickets issued for carriageway marking offences which totalled 47,675. The latter includes overtaking across a double continuous white line.

In the list are other forms of contraventions ranging from littering to smoking in public places.

Enforcement is carried out across five separate regions, each having its own tribunal: centre, southeast, south, north and Gozo.

The central region, which includes Sliema, St Julian’s and Birkirkara among other localities, consistently tops the list of reported contraventions with 108,377 in the first 10 months.

Next was the southern region, which includes Ħamrun, Żebbuġ and Qormi, with 52,044; the northern region (from Pembroke up to Mellieħa and including Rabat) with 44,974 contraventions and the southeast (which includes Valletta) with 44,258 offences.

Gozo consistently places bottom of the list with just 9,971 offences reported up to the end of October.

Contraventions compared

*Up to October 31, 2014. Source: Justice Ministry