Cap. 552 Art. 103Offences. Cap. 9. Cap. 9. Cap. 12.

(1) Any person who -

(a) carries out any development on any land or allows any development to be carried out on land of which he is an owner or occupier without a valid development permission, or, if the development is carried out with a development permission, fails to comply or to cause compliance with any condition, restriction or other limitation to which the permission is subject; or

(b) acts in contravention of any of the provisions of articles 57 and 58 in respect of any scheduled property or an emergency conservation order; or

(c) having been served with an enforcement notice or other notice under articles 56, 97, 98 or 99 fails to comply with any of the requirements of such notice within the time therein specified; or

(d) hinders, obstructs, molests or interferes with, or attempts to hinder, obstruct, molest or interfere with, any officer or employee of the Authority, or any police or army officer, or any public officer, or any employee or servant of any department of Government or of any agency of Government or of any local council, in the execution of his duties under the law, or fails to comply with any reasonable requirement demanded of him by any such person as aforesaid or otherwise fails to assist him in the carrying out of the said duties, or which is false, misleading or incorrect in any material respect, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine (multa) of not less than one thousand five hundred euro (€1,500) and not exceeding one hundred thousand euro (€100,000), and in respect of an offence under paragraph (d) or, in the case of an offence under paragraph (c), if the offender persists in the offence for more than three months, also to imprisonment for a term of not less than three months and not exceeding three years: Provided that, and without prejudice to the provisions of articles 57(9) and 100(4) and without prejudice to the maximum fine above established, the minimum fine (multa) to which an offender is liable under this article shall not be less than the value of any work carried out without permission or in violation of any conditions to which such permission was subject.

(2) The Court, besides awarding the punishment referred to in sub-article (1), shall order the offender to remove the causes of the offence and to undo anything which was done without a permission or to comply with the conditions imposed in the permission, as the case may be, within a time sufficient for the purpose, but in any case not exceeding three months from the date of the judgement, to be fixed by the court; and, if the offender fails to comply with any such order within the time so fixed, he shall be liable to a fine (multa) of not less than fifty euro (€50) and not more than one hundred euro (€100), as the court may fix, for every day the default continues after the expiration of the said time and may also order the modification, suspension or revocation of any authorisation or permission.

(3) Any person who is convicted of an offence under this article may also, at the request of the prosecution, be disqualified from signing and submitting to the Authority, for a period not exceeding two years from the date of conviction for the offence, certificates of compliance or fire safety certificates, or any other certificate required in accordance with this Act or any other regulations made thereunder and, accordingly, the Authority shall not accept certificates for registration which are signed by a person while so disqualified.

(4) Proceedings against any person for any offence as is mentioned in sub-article (1) shall be taken before the Court of Magistrates (Malta) or the Court of Magistrates (Gozo), as the case may be, as courts of criminal judicature in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Code:

Provided that, notwithstanding the provisions of article 376(1)(b) of the Criminal Code, the court shall, at the request of the prosecution or of the accused, take down evidence given by the witnesses in the manner provided for either in article 390(6) of the not be a bar to the continuation of such a prosecution and the court shall continue to hear such a case and shall give judgement and shall issue an order in terms of sub-article (2) as if such an application or such an appeal had never been filed: Provided that where such an activity or development has been regularised no fine (multa) under sub-article (2) shall be due in respect of the time after the development has been regularised.

(6) (a) Without prejudice to any other provisions of this Act, or other provisions or regulations, made under this Act, which the Authority is entitled to enforce, the Authority shall have the power to impose in respect of any person who infringes any provision of this Act or of any regulations made thereunder, or who fails to comply with any directive or decision given by the Authority, whether under this Act, or regulations prescribed thereunder, or under any other law which the Authority is entitled to enforce, an administrative fine using such procedures as established in this Act or regulations made thereunder.

(b) An administrative fine imposed shall not, unless provided otherwise by or under this Act, exceed two hundred thousand euro (€200,000), and two thousand euro (€2,000) each day, in the case where the infringement persists: Provided that all the fines provided for in this article shall be due to the Government as a civil debt and following the service of a judicial act, in terms of article 466 of the Code of Organization and Civil Procedure.