A 58-year-old man from Safi charged with grievously injuring a traffic policeman was cleared of all charged today because the Magistrate did not believe the policeman’s version of events.

The policeman said that Joseph Zammit who was driving a van, rammed into him as he was crossing next to the Dinitrol roundabout in Luqa, sending him crashing to the ground. The accident happened in December 2007 and Mr Grech was riding a service motorcycle.

He said Mr Zammit did not stop at the scene of the incident and drove off. He said he was given the van’s registration plates by passers-by and he traced who the van belonged to.

However, Mr Zammit insisted that he had not hit Mr Grech’s motorbike saying it was impossible to hit a bike and not realise.

Magistrate Edwina Grima said the evidence she heard was contradictory and did not prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that it had been Mr Zammit who hit Mr Grech’s bike.

Mr Grech is the same police officer who had pleaded guilty in May to soliciting bribes to cancel contraventions from the police system. He had been given a suspended jail term.

Inspector Jurgen Vella prosecuted while lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for the accused.