A man has been cleared of driving a minivan without a permit, a driving licence and insurance cover after a Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that the first court could not have found him guilty due to contrasting evidence.

Simon Haber was found guilty of driving a minivan without a permit issued by the Malta Transport Authority, as well as without a drivers’ licence and insurance cover. The Magistrates’ Court had fined him a total of Lm1,110 and disqualified him from obtaining a drivers’ licence for a year.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal presided over by Mr Justice David Scicluna ruled that there was a conflict between the evidence tendered by the ADT official is claiming he stopped Mr Haber as he was driving the minivan and the version of the accused who insisted that the van’s owner was driving when the ADT officials stopped them.

Mr Justice Scicluna therefore cleared Haber of all the charges brought against him.