Speed camera tickets issued in the Mediterranean island nation of Malta are invalid under both Maltese and European law. The Sliema Tribunal last month acquitted Victor Bonello of speeding charges after he successfully argued that the speed camera that accused him had never had the required certification of accuracy. The ruling would apply to all camera tickets on the island, because none of the country's cameras have ever been certified.

Without regular calibration, there is no way to know whether the machines properly record a motorist's speed. The Malta Independent newspaper verified that neither the Malta Transport Authority (ADT), the Malta Standards Authority, the Local Councils Association, nor the Malta Communications Authority ever bothered to inspect the machines. The officials contend that the machines had been calibrated at the factory in Sweden where they were assembled and that the machines "recalibrated themselves automatically."

Update: Local Councils Association President Ian Micallef has responded to our item. Read his letter in full.

In other words, and this was confirmed by further correspondence both with the MCA and the MSA, there is no qualified individual or lab in Malta which can monitor the accuracy of these cameras. Moreover, there is no formal agreement with any of the mentioned bodies regulating these speed cameras, or any set inspection schedule.