Dh170,000 in speeding fines under 4 hours
Rental firm that owns car driven by tourist liable to pay fines plus impounding fees |
Asupercar rental business in Dubai may end up paying super fines, thanks to a reckless tourist. On July 30, a 26-year-old British tourist rented a yellow Dh1.3 million Lamborghini Huracan from the car rental shop. He then proceeded to drive on Shaikh Zayed Road at speeds as high as 231km/h, racking up Dh170,000 in speeding fines in a period of just under four hours.
Between 2.31am and 6.26am on July 31, the tourist tripped 33 speed radars on the road, incurring 33 fines as a result.
The client was driving so fast that Mohammad Ebrahim, owner of the rental car business, claimed that he received three SMS notifications of speeding fines within a minute.
As the vehicle-owner, the car rental business is now liable to pay about Dh170,000 in traffic fines and additional fees to recover the supercar that will be impounded.
For each speeding violation, cars are impounded for up to 30 days and motorists have to pay a fee of Dh100 per day.
Ebrahim told Gulf News on Monday that the tourist rented the supercar for Dh6,000 per day for three days. “Most of the speed radars on Shaikh Zayed road caught him as he drove between 158km/h to 231km/h in some areas without stopping,” Ebrahim said.
No deposit
He said that the car is still parked in a hotel in Dubai and that he is afraid of incurring a major loss as he didn’t take a deposit from the tourist.
“I don’t know if he [the tourist] will pay the fines as there is no clear procedure to crack down on customers who commit such offences,” Ebrahim said.
A Dubai Police official told
Gulf News that radars capture the licence plate numbers of speeding vehicles, not the people driving them.
He added that Dubai Police cannot interfere and advised
the car rental owner to go to court. “I went to the police station to file a complaint and they told me that I can only complain if the tourist didn’t pay the rental fee. There is no clear procedure for car rental companies to protect their rights in such incidents,” Ebrahim said.
He is now afraid that the tourist will leave the country.
Ebrahim also has to replace the brakes of the Lamborghini.
Meanwhile, legal consultant Hassan Elhais from Al Rowad Advocates suggested that the car rental owner can file a case in order to get a travel ban imposed on the tourist.
“The owner can file a civil lawsuit against the man who rented the car. Once a ruling is issued in his favour, he can request that the ruling be implemented by the country of the tourist,” Elhais said.