Constitutional application filed over car seized in a drug raid

Four lawyers presented a constitutional application calling for the release of a BMW X5 seized during a drug raid in 2007, claiming the legal owners of the vehicles were not the persons using the vehicle at the time.

In September 2007 Premier Leasing and Investments Co Ltd sold the BMW to Stiano Agius on a hire purchase contract. Agius paid  €20,964 in cash and agreed to pay the balance  €44,258 in installments. It was agreed that until the car is paid for, it will remain the property of Premier Ltd.

However in a drug raid on 10 November 2007, the police found a kilo of cocaine in the residence of Stiano Agius. In relation to the case, the police seized a large sum of money and a BMW X5, saying drugs were also found in the vehicle. The man was arraigned and Magistrate Miriam Hayman ordered his assets frozen.

Premier Ltd filed a number of court applications demanding that Agius pays the outstanding  63,484 accumulated in bills and interest since 2007. However the request were always turned down by the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General.

In their Constitutional application the lawyers argued that the company is the legal owner of a seized vehicle. The debt owed to them in payments by Agius date back prior to the drug raid and the company itself is not involved in the proceedings. While the amount owed runs into tens of thousands, after six years from being seized the current value of the seized car in now negligible.

The lawyers requested the court to declare the seizure of the BMW X5 and the refusals by the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General to release the vehicle or to credit the company its due amount, in breach of the proprietors fundamental rights. Subsequently the Constitutional Court is to order the transfer of  €61,465 from the frozen assets belonging to Stiano Agius in favour of Premier Ltd, and allocate a sum to be paid in damages over the breach of the fundamental rights of the vehicle's rightful owners.

Furthermore, the Court is to decree there is a conflict between different articles of law in the Maltese legal system which create legal uncertainties in view of bona fide creditors. Lawyers Shahriyar Ghaznavi, David Camilleri, Robert Galea and Joseph Gatt signed the constitutional appeal.