The Controller of Customs was yesterday ordered to pay €9,000 in damages after a court found that he had failed to return a car, a speedboat and a trailer seized almost 20 years ago.
Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco delivered this judgment following an action for damages filedby Mark Micallef against the Controller.
Mr Micallef told the court that in April 1993 the Customs Department had confiscated his Ford Transit van, his Rinker speedboat and a trailer on the basis that customs duty on these objects had not been paid.
He was charged before the courts with evading customs duty but was acquitted by the Magistrates’ Court in February 2000. This judgment was confirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeal two months later.
However, the Controller failed to release Mr Micallef’s possessions even after he was ordered to do so by the First Hall of the Civil Court in 2003 following judicial action filed by Mr Micallef.
On the contrary, the Controller had appealed to the Court of Appeal but the appeal was deemed to have been abandoned in 2005.
In 2006 Mr Micallef filed another writ before the First Hall of the Civil Court asking that the Controller be ordered to pay him damages as the van, the speedboat and the trailer had suffered substantial damage during the 19 years of seizure.
The Controller contested this action on the basis that he had acted in accordance with the law.
But Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco said the Controller had continued to oppose Mr Micallef’s request for restitution of his property even after four court judgments had been delivered in Mr Micallef’s favour.
The Controller had appealed from the 2003 judgment of the First Hall of the Civil Court which had ordered the property to be released to Mr Micallef, but the appeal had then been abandoned.
Had the Controller not appealed, then the damages suffered by Mr Micallef would have been lower in value.
The van, the speedboat and the trailer had all suffered as a result of non-use and no maintenance over 19 years.
However, Mr Micallef had not produced evidence to show the value of these items.
The court said that it was empowered to establish a value itself and it ordered theController to pay Mr Micallef €9,000 in damages.