Road menace fined and jailed

A 22-year-old Birkirkara man has been fined €3000 after he admitted to driving an unlicensed, uninsured car without a driving licence on the 29th of September last year. 

The man in question, Dustin Bugeja has to date, been convicted of at least six different traffic offences during the period spanning from August 2010 to September 2014, being sentenced to a total of 16 months imprisonment. Bugeja has also been handed several fines amounting to €8600.

His multiple dangerous driving convictions include one case of a high-speed car chase across the island. Early in the morning of August 27, 2010. Bugeja had been pulled over by traffic police for speeding on Regional Road. He was found to also be driving without a seatbelt and is allaeged to have also attempted to obstruct the police from carrying out their duties. 

He was arrested a year later, during the night of the 21 September 2011, after a high-speed chase across Malta and was found to be driving an uninsured and unlicensed vehicle with foreign registration plates.

Bugeja was charged with negligent, careless and dangerous driving, speeding, ignoring continuous white lines, driving the wrong way through one-way streets, failing to use his indicator, driving on the wrong side of the road, failing to stop at stop signs and driving without a road licence or insurance cover. He was also found guilty in this case and jailed for nine months. 

Another four-month sentence was handed down to Bugeja with respect to another incident which took place on October 25, 2013, at 01:45hrs, when Bugeja refused to give his details to a police officer after he was stopped for negligent driving and was found to be driving without a licence.

Bugeja was fined €2,600 on August twelfth last year, after he was found guilty of driving recklessly and without a driving license. He was also found to be in breach of previous court orders. In a separate case last August, he also received another €3,000 fine for similar charges.