Unfair towing

An article in The Times on August 5 brought back many unhappy memories of what happened to me after I arrived back from the United States.

I was at the time driving a car with a California licence plate. One day, I parked my car just outside Nicholsons Supermarket in Amery Street. On my return after shopping, I saw my car being towed away.

I tried to reason with the policeman that that was a parking space and that the cars parked opposite were breaking the law. Why was he not towing those cars? Immediately above the cars was a 'tow away' sign but the policeman would not listen and my car was towed away.

While my car was being removed, another car came over and took my parking space right in front of the officer who was supposed to be doing his duty. I found a friend and asked if he could help as he knew quite a lot of policemen.

He went to talk to him and the answer was that had he known that I was a friend of Joe he would not have taken my car away.

I was furious. I went home, fetched my camera and took pictures to show to the commissioner of police the next day.

I even went to an attorney who asked me for a copy of the photos I gave the commissioner of police.

The lawyer was ready to take my case and said he would take my case to the Ombudsman and retrieve the money I paid so unfairly.

You must have guessed it, the lawyer never did anything for me. Had I been in the US that lawyer would have lost his licence.

The Bar Association would not tolerate such behaviour. But here we are in Malta and we are the underdog.