Daphne it doesn’t matter what his accent sounds like or if he has a Maltese ID card or even a Maltese passport. The Brits will invoke consular efforts if he has a British passport. He can be a born and bred Maltese guy who got his British passport via his parents. The Brits still have an obligation to have their consulate act on his behave.

You say “He probably never registered it in Malta and just because it had British number plates, the press assumed he was Scottish” but this doesn’t really stand either, because if his car registration plate begins “FE” it means the car is from Nottingham, some few hundred miles from Scotland.

Just that?

He’s as Maltese as they come, isn’t he.

I think we’ve all been taken for a long ride, but there are now more questions than answers, mainly because of Sheehan’s actions and attitude.

Why would he drag in the whole police force if there was something more sinister than shooting at someone who hit his master’s car and drove off?

We know that he had no qualms about shooting at a moving vehicle without justification because he did rope in the whole police force. In this case, it would seem that to his mind his actions were justifiable, or at the very least he believed that he will suffer no consequences for his actions.

So far, so good. No mystery there, for it is a well known fact that many police officers know their cop movies more than the regulations they should be abiding by: If you flee the scene of crime the cop has a right to shoot at you (which is not the case at all).

But anything beyond that and it becomes a mystery. If indeed, as Daphne seems to believe, there was anything highly criminal in his relationship with Smith, it means he felt protected even at this level of criminal activity. This would be highly worrying, of course, but it makes little sense. It’s too messy. Why would he do such a thing? The alternative is that he was blinded by rage and wasn’t thinking at all – which is also a likely scenario.

The eventual tampering with the PIRS only adds spice to the mystery. Was Smith’s intoxication level at issue here? But if this were the case the evidence would still exist on paper. And why would anyone want to protect Smith? Or was it just a third party who wished to compound matters even further? What did the PIRS report contain exactly? Anything that contradicts anyone important?

Can the DOI please help?

E, le bilhaqq, the DOI is part of the problem.

[Daphne – Somebody sent it in.]

He rolls his ‘r’s’ – just like Cyrus

Scotland isn’t getting all protective at all. Apart from one short article in the Scotsman, there hasn’t been any significant coverage as far as I’m aware (and I do read Scottish newspapers and watch Scottish news).

The Scottish government and newspapers are addressing important issues like devolution and land reform (apart from the Sun, which is busy addressing issues pertaining to Jordan – the enhanced person, not the country).

Check is as follows:

Vehicle enquiry:

Registration number: FE10 SPV
Make: Vauxhall
✗ Untaxed
Tax due: 11 August 2014 (NOTE: means that a refund of the car tax was asked for, otherwise, if it just was a normal expiry, it would have ended at the end of the month)
✔ MOT
Expires: 02 April 2015

New keepers must get tax before using the vehicle. Please be aware that if you have taxed, made a SORN or had an MOT in the last 5 days these details may not have updated.

Vehicle details
6 month rate £99.00 12 month rate £180.00 6 monthly by direct debit totalling £94.50 12 monthly by direct debit totalling £180.00 Monthly by direct debit totalling £189.00 (Monthly payment of approximately £15.75)

Vehicle make VAUXHALL
Date of first registration 31 March 2010
Year of manufacture 2010
Cylinder capacity (cc) 1956cc CO₂Emissions 154 g/km Fuel type DIESEL
*Export marker Yes*
Vehicle status Not taxed
Vehicle colour SILVER
Vehicle type approval M1

It’s definitely a Maltese accent. Do bear in mind that children in general tend to pick up their mother’s accent, not their father’s, when parents have different accents.

The driver’s accent is a Yorkshire accent, probably West Yorkshire.