Criminal damage of own property?

[martine]

On one of the traffic police progs on tv recently there was the hilarious story of a chap whose car was about to be impounded who then decided it would be a good idea to slash the tyres on his own car to make it more difficult for the recovery lorry.

Amongst other things he was charged with criminal damage (to his own car). I'm sure they were right but how can this be?