Tribunal experience

A few weeks ago I received, out of the blue, a summons to attend a tribunal hearing. I was being charged for not wearing a seat-belt while driving my vehicle. I thought this to be quite odd as I always wear my seat-belt while driving. I was not made aware by anyone of the offence I was supposed to have committed. Not wanting to pay for an offence I never committed, I had no option but to attend the hearing and claim my innocence. And what an experience this was!

Under oath I confirmed to the Commissioner of Justice, who did not identify himself at any time during my short stay in the "courtroom", what he asked of me to confirm.

That is, that I was wearing a dark jacket, driving in the named locality and that the vehicle I was driving was grey in colour. I then told the tribunal head that I was actually wearing the seat-belt at the time. It seemed that no notice of this last piece of evidence was taken heed of.

The commissioner then announced that on the basis that my confirmation of the jacket colour, car colour and locality all tallied with the traffic warden's report, I was being found guilty of the offence of not wearing a seat-belt. So much for telling the truth!

And what about my confirmation/evidence that I was wearing the seat-belt? No, none of that was taken into account and neither did it seem that this would make a difference to my defence. So, why bother summoning me?

I then informed the commissioner that I would like to appeal his judgment and asked what I should do next. At this point, he seemed to get very annoyed (for no apparent reason), shrugged his shoulders and in a fobbing-off attitude told me to consult a lawyer. Very surprised at the way he was addressing me, I asked him again for advice regarding the appeal procedure. At this stage, probably realising more agitation on the commissioner's part, another person present in the courtroom took a few seconds of his time to explain to me what I could do next if I chose to appeal.

If this is the way Maltese and EU citizens are treated in such tribunal hearings, then some further education on how to treat people is urgently required to be passed on to commissioners. I would believe the way I was treated by this particular commissioner was the exception and not the rule.

To add insult to injury, on the actual day of my tribunal hearing the Parliamentary Secretary in the Home Affairs Ministry, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, was reported as saying it is unacceptable that anyone could just be driving by and be booked for an offence without being notified of it there and then. In fact, Legal Notice 350 now ensures that such "irregularities" do not take place.

With this in mind, together with no concrete proof of my offence and my denial under oath, common sense dictates that the commissioner at my hearing should have acted differently and more rationally.

So much for democracy and transparency!