The police and authorities "must quickly take all the necessary steps to ensure that there is no tampering to destroy the evidence," Repubblika said in a statement reacting to allegations brought forward by former PN MP Jason Azzopardi.

The lawyer filed an application in court on Friday in which he made an urgent request for a magisterial inquiry into an alleged multimillion-euro racket involving top LESA officials transferring Maltese drivers' penalty points onto rental cars used by tourists.

Repubblika said that these allegations are "very serious" and are of "a criminal nature". It continued that people who could have been disqualified and stopped from driving due to driving abusively and against the law may have instead been illegally pardoned after making an illegal payment.

The NGO said that this racket is to the detriment of the Maltese State and that it is "to the loss of every citizen of goodwill". It commented that if these abuses really did take place, then they would frame the country in "a very ugly light on an international level". It added that it could possibly compromise a great source of financial income, referring to tourism, "which provides a living for so many families".