Enforcing mask-wearing rules can be quite a hassle, as a number of wardens found out when they boarded a bus in Marsa last weekend.

Lovin Malta is informed by sources close to LESA that LESA officers were boarding buses in Marsa last Saturday as part of their routine inspections and found a teenage girl breaching mask rules. LESA said that she wasn’t wearing a mask but the girl’s father has said she was found with her nose uncovered.

They ordered her to get off the bus, took her particulars and fined her €50 as per procedure. The bus was allowed to continue its journey without her and the wardens escorted the girl to a bus stop while she called her father to pick her up.

Meanwhile, the wardens continued inspecting buses and more people were fined for not wearing masks on board. However, one of these people refused to give the LESA officers his particulars and they ended up calling the police.

While the police were dealing with this confrontation, the girl’s father showed up and voiced his concern at the situation.

On Facebook, the father wrote that he had no problem with his daughter getting fined for breaching mask rules but that the wardens shouldn’t have ordered her to get off the bus and walk towards a bus stop in Marsa, a town renowned for its safety issues, at around 8pm.

“I’m pretty sure he would have done the same if it was an underaged relative of his, keep up the good work and attitude boys,” he wrote. “The country really needs more officers like you.”

LESA’s CEO Svetlick Flores confirmed the incident with Lovin Malta, adding that police are investigating the confrontation that arose involving the passenger who refused to provide wardens with his particulars.

“If it results in any wrongdoing by the officers, disciplinary measures will be taken accordingly,” he pledged.

Flores said LESA have made “various attempts” to contact the father to clarify the issue but have so far been unsuccessful.

Have you encountered any similar incidents in Malta over the mask-wearing rules?