Car renter ordered to pay €93,000 damages
The owners of a hired car which was seized by the police in the course of an investigation were yesterday awarded €93,000 in damages after a court ruled they had been deprived of the car through no fault of their own.
Francis Xuereb owned a Toyota which he rented out to Francis Formosa in February 2004. The car was confiscated by the police on the same day as it was suspected that it had been used to carry contraband cigarettes.
Mr Xuereb told the court that his company had nothing to do with this confiscation but had been deprived of the use of the car as a result of Mr Formosa's actions. He asked the court to condemn Mr Formosa to pay the firm damages including loss of rental income.
Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo noted that Mr Formosa had not contested the court case. But the car had not been released by the police as criminal proceedings against Mr Formosa had not ended.
As a result, Mr Xuereb suffered loss of income because he could not use the car and Mr Formosa was responsible for these damages.
The court calculated that Mr Xuereb had lost income of €15,000 per year since the car was confiscated. Furthermore, the car would nowadays be valued at €3,000.
In conclusion Mr Formosa was ordered to pay Mr Xuereb €93,000.
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M Cassar
Mar 12th 2010, 15:44
jOE cORDINA ok then my bad..then the customs should fork out the money and whoever made the decision ..however the news says..'confiscated by the police' if you actually read the article and I don't think the custom have anything to do with confiscating cars used for crimes. Ps that's why Times of Malta added the comments section so that we, the public could have a say and as in democratic countries give our humble opinions. Doesn't mean what I say or what you say is correct, it's just our opinions and comments.
jOE cORDINA
Mar 12th 2010, 13:53
@ M Cassar.
For your information any vehicle used in relation to a customs and excise offence whether uit be used by its owner or by any other person is confiscated by customs by LAW. Hence it is not a matter for the police or forensics but a straight forward casem of customs and customs law.
Huh armchair critics!!
Sandro Cremona
Mar 12th 2010, 13:13
It is not a problem.. at the end of the day Il Gahan will have to pay.. INT!!!
Anthony Grech
Mar 12th 2010, 12:25
Why did this take 6 years? What atotal joke, if anyone wants to make good money just make sure that if you ar owed money, tie it up in court and end up getting 8% interest. Think about it, you are owed 10,000 Euros, tie it up for 10 years and you almost double your money. Goog deal for all the criminals not so good for the innocent.
Nigel Lawrence
Mar 12th 2010, 11:31
If I was working at the inland revenue dept., I would be inclined to take careful note of the rental value claims and compare them with the tax returns of this operation.
Lisa Seisun
Mar 12th 2010, 11:10
reading this comedy makes me laugh alot. why should Mr Francis Formosa pay that sum to the car rental company????? if the car was confiscated by the police only for cigarettes the police should pay the company not this person as the car had no reson to be kept by the police as there were no hold up's or murders with this car so it's funny to read what the court decided as they should haveonly confiscated the sigarettes only. here we are not living in Malta anymore as you cant call our island Malta you cancall it Africa or Funny Island 93,000 euros for a car that police decided to keep with no reason. I think I should emigrate to Alaska
M Cassar
Mar 12th 2010, 10:32
And why confiscate a car for 6 years for a contraband offense. (My humble opinion) I think the forensic section are at fault here for being unpractical or too slow. Didn't they get the dna machine, what about swabs instead of confiscating the entire car especially since the car was not the culprit's car.