Malta's bad name

We holidayed on your island from December 31 to January 7. On January 4 we hired a car for three days, which we paid for by credit card. On that day we drove to Marsaxlokk, where we received a parking fine for Lm15.

On returning to the hotel we showed the ticket to the car hire representatives who phoned Marsa-xlokk local council and yes, we had to pay Lm15. Fair enough.

We paid this amount to the representative in cash, who assured us he would pass it on to the appropriate authorities.

Imagine our surprise when we received our credit card statement and found that the amount of Lm15 had been taken again on our credit card without our permission. If this were not bad enough, on our return journey home there were 29 people in our party and we had a total of 1,000 cigarettes stolen from our suitcases.

On discussion with the Gatwick police we were informed that this was quite common in Malta these days. I have visited Malta quite a few times over the last 20 years but nothing like this has ever happened before. We will, unfortunately, have to think twice in the future before planning any further trips to Malta.