Car released after being impounded for 33 years

A court yesterday ordered the release of a Mercedes-Benz sports car that has been impounded for 33 years and which has now become a classic vehicle that has greatly appreciated in value.

The old, English white, 1967 250 SL, once owned by 1970s speedway racer Taffy Owen, had been brought to Malta by Briton Paul Smith in 1974.

He had bought the car for £1,500 but it is now worth about £50,000 (nearly €60,000), according to its owner. The vehicle may have gathered plenty of grime and dust over the years but it has exceptionally low mileage and is still in "mint condition".

Mr Smith had asked a Maltese friend to drive the car from the UK to his villa in St Paul's Bay. Two years later the police impounded it on suspicions that it had been stolen.

"Since many cars such as Rolls Royces and other fancy cars were being stolen in the 1970s and delivered to northern Africa, through Malta, the police thought it was one of them," Mr Smith recalled, speaking from the UK.

The police released it after two years only for the Customs Department to seize it, claiming violations of import regulations. The beautiful sports car sat at Customs for 31 years, as Mr Smith took the case to the court and the department insisted he had to wait for the outcome of a constitutional case about Customs regulations to be concluded before they could proceed.

In 1988, the Constitutional Court declared the seizure null and void but Customs still kept the car even though, Mr Smith said, he wrote repeatedly to find out what had become of it.

In 2007, the department launched a second seizure order, which Mr Smith challenged in court for a second time. In the process of gathering information for his legal case, he discovered that the car had been "lost in the system".

"I went to the Customs department and met with a nice old chap. We had to go through the physical records that pre-dated computers and, finally, found it there on book number four. We wiped an inch of dust off the page but we found the number plate entry," he said.

The Customs official then called up the man in charge of the warehouse where the vehicle was being held, who recognised the number plate immediately. "That's my car," the man said humorously referring to the fact that the car had been sitting there for such a long time.

In the judgement in Mr Smith's case yesterday, Mr Justice Raymond Pace said Customs could not have issued a seizure order after the lapse of over 31 years as there was a limit of 10 years for them to take legal action.

The judge ordered the immediate release of the vehicle to Mr Smith.

He was overjoyed that, finally, a 33-year wait had come to an end and he could be reunited with his pride and joy. He will be coming over to Malta to make final arrangements for the release of the car next week. Lawyer Robert Abela appeared for Mr Smith.