A 20-year-old man who admitted to driving without a valid licence has been barred from driving for 16 months. 

Adnan Alabdula Mohamad, a Syrian national living in Qormi was arraigned in front of Magistrate Victor George Axiaq accused of driving without a license or insurance and dangerous driving.

Police Inspector Elisia Scicluna told the court that Mohamad had been apprehended by the police on Tuesday.

Officers were conducting routine inspections at a construction site. When they asked Mohamad for his documents, he handed them a Bulgarian passport. 

Further inquiries revealed that Mohamad had overstayed his visa. Officers arrested him and took him to the Floriana lockup.

While he was being processed, they discovered that Mohamad had been involved in a traffic collision in Marsa just a day prior. No one was injured in that incident.

The inspector said, without elaborating, that the owner of the car that Mohamad was driving had agreed to settle with the other driver through insurance claims. 

Scicluna added that the officer who took Mohamad’s statement following the collision had said that he admitted to her that he had been driving without a license and insurance.

She said it was unclear why Mohamad’s visa status had not come up at this stage.

Mohamad admitted to all the charges brought against him, including dangerous driving, with the court confirming his guilt.

He was handed a four-month jail term suspended for one year and was disqualified from having a driver’s license for 16 months.