The Mepa board came down heavily on five-star San Antonio Hotel in Bugibba and fined it double what the rules say it could fine it because of some irregularities over the past months.

The hotel had applied to sanction some unauthorised work and to add some additions to the hotel.

With these additions the hotel will have 500 guest rooms and the additional stories it will be building on one side of the hotel will serve to improve the amenities the hotel will have such as a rooftop pool, rooftop entertainment area and the like.

The hotel's justification for doing unauthorised work was that the work that has been done over the past months had to be done without disrupting the tourists' stay, so certain work had to be done without waiting for the permit, although most of the work done could have been tackled with a simple DNO.

Despite the works that have been done, the hotel still lacks 35 parking spaces and has come up with the suggestion additional parking can be had at a slight distance from the hotel which can be reached on foot.

Today, a fine to sanction an illegality is not something the Mepa board decides out of thin air but is laid down in the law. Considering the illegalities on site, the hotel stood to be fined some €29,000 which, on the chairman's prerogative and insistence will be doubled.