Man who bought Aston Martin with bad cheque told to pay up

A trader who bought a Dh238,000 Aston Martin Vantage using a bad cheque has been ordered to pay the full sum to the duped buyer after appearing in court.

A British man agreed to sell the luxury vehicle to the Emirati buyer for the agreed price last August, Al Ain Court heard.

“He handed him a cheque for Dh238,000 after which my trusting client approved registering the car in the buyer’s name,” said Awatif Mohammed, representing the car’s owner.

But when he went to cash the cheque at First Gulf Bank he was told that it had bounced.

The Briton contacted the buyer, informed him that the cheque had failed to clear and made several attempts to get him to pay the amount.

He then filed a report against him after he failed to pay.

“The report was first handled by the reconciliation centre in Abu Dhabi, which failed to convince the Emirati buyer to pay my client his money, then the report was referred to court,” Ms Mohammed said. In court, the Emirati man said that he regularly bought and sold used cars and denied issuing the cheque or handing it to the owner.

“I don’t know how he got hold of a cheque from my chequebook, but I didn’t hand it to him, I paid him in cash and I paid more than he says, I gave him Dh285,000,” the buyer said in court.

“He claims he paid my client in cash but didn’t take a receipt of the payment which is strange, because being a trader who bought and sold cars all the time, it is mandatory to keep every thing documented,” Ms Mohammed told the judges. The court ordered that the defendant pay Dh238,000 to the previous owner.

Buyer claimed he had paid cash for the Dh238,000 car and had no idea how the seller came to have a cheque from his chequebook