I can’t get the bus ... thieves would steal my Rolexes
Watch dealer tries to avoid driving ban by claiming:
‘Considerable risk of robbery’
A WATCH trader caught using his mobile phone at the wheel for a second time in five months tried to avoid a driving ban by claiming it was ‘too dangerous’ to take his wares on public transport. Asil Ashar, who runs a second-hand trading firm, said he often went to collect Rolex watches worth thousands of pounds from clients and feared he might be a target for thieves.
His plea was rejected, and the married father of three received a six-month ban.
Ashar, who lives in a £775,000 house in Hale, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was stopped on April 20 this year in Sale. Manchester magistrates were told he was on the phone while driving his Land Rover Defender, which has a personalised number plate.
He faced a driving ban under the tottingup procedure because he was already on nine penalty points, and his latest offence would take him over the 12-point threshold at which a ban is triggered. Ashar, 48, received three points for speeding in November 2017 and a further six for driving while using a handheld mobile device last December.
The businessman, whose firm Entertainment Trader turns over £840,000 a year and made a £100,000 profit, insisted he could not afford a chauffeur and needed his licence in order to keep his business afloat as he drove to collect second-hand Rolex watches.
He said: ‘Next week I’ve got to collect two watches in Swansea, one of them is £5,000 the other is £8,000. I employ five people but it’s too dangerous for me to ask them to go out and collect the watches. You have to be very careful about picking up watches.’
‘ There are financial and safety reasons for why I should be driving. The net profit of £ 100,000 is not consistent every year.’
Ashar’s lawyer, Jeremy Spencer, said: ‘ There is a considerable risk of robbery. He drives to a secure warehouse, which is a part of the business. He collects the watches and transfers them to the warehouses.’
But presiding magistrate Ian Scott-Dunn told Ashar that while a driving ban ‘would be inconvenient’, he could ‘arrange other ways of collecting and delivering the watches which you buy and sell’.
Ashar was also fined £300 and ordered to pay £120 in costs and surcharges.