A customer whose hire-purchase vehicle was towed away by the seller who subsequently charged him €388 for the job has cried foul by means of a judicial protest. 

Vladimir Ivanovic signed a hire-purchase agreement with Christian Borg, owner of Princess Holdings Limited and No Deposit Cars Malta Limited, to acquire a Citroen C3 model on August 1, 2020. 

But two years later, the vehicle was taken away by the seller and towed away from the spot where Ivanovic had parked it. 

A data tracking device inserted in the vehicle enabled the seller to keep tabs on the buyer’s movements. 

Lawyers for Ivanovic said the “veiled surveillance” caused him fear, stress and anxiety. 

When Ivanovic headed to the Birkirkara police station to report that his car had been stolen, officers said the account did not amount to a criminal offence. 

This attitude explained why Borg and his business associates continued to act with such “impunity and audaciousness”, the judicial protest continued.

The authorities let them do whatever they wanted, said the protesting party. 

Following the vehicle’s disappearance, Ivanovic could barely believe his eyes when last February he saw his very own Citroen model, bearing the same registration plates, being driven by a law enforcement officer in Mellieħa.

The car now also bore the LESA logo.

And in April, he again spotted the same car being driven by a LESA officer in Attard. 

The dispossessed owner is now claiming that the hire-purchase agreement was riddled with clauses that were blatantly in breach of civil and criminal laws as well as privacy and consumer legislation. 

These “unfair and illegal” clauses resulted in material and moral damages suffered by Ivanovic and were indicative of the fact that Borg and his associates were clearly involved in money laundering, fraud, theft and criminal conspiracy. 

Ivanovic said he had brought all this to the attention of the police commissioner by filing a criminal report about these allegations so that criminal action may be taken against Borg and his associates. 

The cherry on the cake was a bill he received for €388 representing towing charges.

“The thief was brazen-faced enough to make his victim and owner/possessor of the vehicle pay for its theft,” said the protesting party’s lawyers, Jason Azzopardi and Kris Busietta who signed the judicial protest

It was filed before the First Hall, Civil Court against Borg, his car companies and his business associate Joseph Camezuli.