It took Michael Fells a court application, several phone calls, and more than four months to get his wife’s car back after it was impounded by the police.

Police officers had told him to forget about the car for a while since it formed part of a magisterial inquiry. But the twist in the tale was still to come.

When Mr Fells finally obtained a court decree saying the police should release the vehicle on February 3, he had to make a series of phone calls to locate the car.

When he finally found it at the Ta’ Kandja police pound, Mr Fells discovered the car’s four doors and boot had been left open. Items he knew were inside when the car was taken by the police were missing.

“There was nothing precious, but some items had sentimental value, especially for my wife,” Mr Fells told The Sunday Times.

“I asked the duty officer at the compound for explanations and was told they had problems with children who would enter the compound and steal some parts to sell.”

The fact that the police would not release the car for all this time had already caused the Fells several problems. Their insurance company would not settle their claim before being able to inspect the car and with everyone telling them there could be a long wait ahead, they decided to buy a new vehicle.

Eventually, Mr Fells returned to the pound on February 16 accompanied by a tow truck to pick up the vehicle.

However, by then two of the car’s alloy wheels and a spare wheel had been removed from the vehicle. Outraged, Mr Fells demanded an explanation.

“Very coolly, the police officer said, it must be those kids again,” Mr Fells said.

Eventually, an inspector was called in and he suggested that a police report be filed.

In the meantime, Mr Fells had the car towed away, only to be told by the insurance company that the vehicle was to be written off.

He did not hear from police regarding the report filed on February 14. However, Mr Fells has now written to the Police Commissioner, asking him to look into the matter.

“I am not after the money, but I find this outrageous,” Mr Fells insisted.

“If there is a place you would not expect this sort of thing to happen, it is the pound which is supposed to be guarded round the clock by police officers,” he said.

“Had the matter stopped at the first theft, I would probably not have bothered. But the theft of the wheels a day after I complained about the first theft was really too much,” he said.

The police pound is used to store vehicles implicated in investigations and therefore considered as potential evidence, as well as cars seized or held with registration tax issues.

The accident, in which Mr Fells’ wife Carmela was injured, also led to four young men being hospitalised, one in a critical condition.

The youngsters were riding in a small Maruti van heading to Bidnija from the main road that leads to the village, when they crashed head-on into Mrs Fells’ Peugeot.

A police investigation was launched but the matter was eventually settled by the respective insurance companies.

The Sunday Times asked the police’s media office whether the police had been made aware of these kinds of problems with the pound in the past, and whether an investigation would be launched into Mr Fells’ claims but no response was forthcoming by the time the newspaper went to print.