Trucking company director sues TM chairman personally over refusal to renew licence

The managing director of a trucking business who had been cleared of criminal responsibility for operating without special licence plates in 2015 has filed a judicial letter against Transport Malta, its chairman James Piscopo in his personal capacity as well as, rather oddly, Piscopo's wife, calling on them to pay him damages for failing to issue the licence plates for his vehicles.

Alleging malice to be the reason behind the non-issuance of licence plates, the letter, signed by lawyer Anthony Stellini on behalf of Joseph Galea and his wife Beatrice, warns the authority and the Piscopos that they would be held personally liable for “all the damages suffered when...as chairman and CEO of the Malta Transport Authority, and also you personally, refused and continue to refuse, without a legally valid reason, to register the vehicles.”

The letter gives the authorities one week to settle the claim for damages. The amount of damages expected is not specified in the judicial letter.

Galea's haulage business had been stopped in its tracks in 2014 after he was told that he lacked an HQ number plate on his vehicles. The licence is a requirement laid down by an outdated law which required hauliers to have a licence issued under regulations created in 1967.

Galea, who holds a National and International Operating Licence for the carriage of goods on a hire and reward basis in Malta, was stopped on 17 April 2014 on arrival from Italy with two of his trailers. He was told that he could not exit the port with his second trailer because he did not have the old 1967 Hauliers Licence, a requirement of an anachronistic law which restricts access to hauliers with a licensing system which predates Malta’s joining the European Union.

In 2015, magistrate Aaron Bugeja had acquitted Galea of any wrongdoing, ruling that the police had failed to substantiate their claims against Galea. No appeal was filed from this judgement. 


This is the second judicial letter filed by Galea against the authority over the matter. Just over a year ago, he had filed a judicial letter against the Ministry of Finance, the Customs Department, the Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure and the Transport Authority accusing Transport Malta of “deciding not to decide” by having failed to issue the plates.

That time, his then lawyers, Michael Tanti-Dougall and Arthur Azzopardi, had pointed out the he had been operating freely within Maltese territory, including the port, as a haulier, for five years at that point.