There was a total of 670 persons who held driving licences that could have had categories added on between 2006 and 2009 without them having taken the appropriate tests, Transport Minister Austin Gatt told Parliament in reply to a question by Opposition Whip Joe Mizzi.

All cases, broken down into two main groups, were being investigated by both the police and Transport Malta.

In Group 1 there were 127 cases, 85 of which were being investigated by the police. The remaining 42 were justified and there was therefore no call for further action on them.

Such valid reasons included exchanges of licences issued by European Union member states or by Australia, wherein a driver could elect to have his or her foreign licence changed to a Maltese one. In other cases, the licence details of the holder did not show up in the computerised system after physical verification of the old licence or with the pre-2001 licensing system.

Minister Gatt said Group 2 included 543 cases which were being investigated by the police with the help of Transport Malta.

Besides, there was a group of 921 cases that were being investigated by Transport Malta. On completion of the internal exercise, these cases would be investigated by the police.