A total of 3,197 people were fined for driving while using their mobile phone between January and July of this year, new data provided by the Police force shows.
Last week the police had told this newspaper that only 11 people had been caught driving while using their phone.
Now the police have clarified that that was the number of people who were arraigned in court for using their phone while driving, while over 3,000 others have been issued with tickets.
A total of 8,129 Traffic Offence Tickets were issued by the police to people using their mobile phone whilst driving in 2016.
The police explained that people caught using their phone while driving are given a ticket and a fine.
The fine was recently increased to €100.
The 11 who were charged in court over the offence would have been charged over more serious cases, such as reckless driving, and the phone charge would be one of several included in the charge sheet.
In all, 193 people have taken to court for using their phone whilst driving in accordance with other charges, in the last five years (2012-2016).
359 persons faced charges of speeding, along with other charges, in the last five years (2012-2016).
Persons committing illegal parking offences were by far the highest, with a substantial 108,546 found parking illegally from 2012 till the end of September 2017.
Additionally, the police statistics revealed that, between 2012 up till the end of September 2017, a total of 15,348 people were caught smoking in non-smoking establishments.
Littering or dumping of rubbish is also a common offence; with 4,086 people fined by the police for the offence in the same period of time.
According to the provided data, 3,213 people were caught taking illegal substances/drugs between 2012 and the end of September of this year.
Overall Malta's crime hub remains in St Julian's with Sliema and St Paul's Bay not far behind.
In all, 17,298 crimes were reported last year around Malta and Gozo, which led to 2,822 arrests.
This figure is slightly higher than the total amount of crimes reported in 2015, which stood at 17,138.