LESA issued more than 280,000 fines in 2022

Local Environmental and Safety Agency (LESA) issued 280,726 tickets by 20 December of last year, information tabled in parliament shows.

From the issued tickets, 16,879 were contested, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri replied to a question by Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo.

Camilleri told the House that from the contested tickets, 5,211 petitions were accepted by LESA, while 10,548 were not accepted. A further 141 were accepted partially, and 979 decisions are still pending.

The tribunal heard 4,119 cases, of which 2,578 were declared not guilty and 1,541 were found guilty.

2022 was not the only year in which a large number of cases were ruled not guilty at tribunal.

In comparison, 2022 saw a decrease in the number of tickets issued by LESA, with a record 342,725 being issued the year before (2021).

This led to a higher number (12,126) of tickets being disputed at tribunal. Out of the 342,725, only 3,045 were found guilty while 9,081 tickets were found not guilty.

In 2020, 6,669 tickets were contested at tribunal, of which only 1,842 were found guilty and 4,827 were found not guilty.