Fugitive wants ‘justice’ over crushed supercar
FUGITIVE fraudster Zahid Khan has boasted he is finally set for his day in court after suing West Midlands Police over the destruction of his £200,000 Ferrari Spider.
And the elusive conman, who fled the UK for Dubai, claims he has already made one appearance in c ourt – via video camera.
The Moseley crook says he is preparing for a final hearing over the civil claim at Birmingham County Court on September 23. The force is defending the writ – and has an extradition order in place to bring the notorious criminal home to serve his sentence.
In an email to the Post’s sister paper, the Sunday Mercury, Khan, 36, said: “I am back in court on September 23, 2022. I will hopefully get justice.”
County court papers reveal new details of the extraordinary civil case. They show how police swooped to seize the supercar after Khan arrogantly posted a picture of it parked on the pavement outside Birmingham Crown Court following an appearance at the nearby magistrates’ court.
The ‘write-off’ Ferrari was stopped weeks later by police on April 5, 2017, and seized.
The force later announced the car had been crushed because it had no valid insurance and was a Category B vehicle. According to the police, vehicles designated as such are classed as unroadworthy and mean the shell has to be destroyed.
Khan sent documents which he claimed would help show his original insurance was valid.
He said: “I would like to share my insurance documents that have been supplied by my insurance broker who issued my insurance for my Ferrari 458 Spider at the time it was unlawfully destroyed by the police.
“The letters confirm my insurer was aware the vehicle was a category B. They also confirm they were aware of all my convictions, too, as well as the vehicle being in a compound by the police.”
He also revealed he had previously made an appearance in a UK court on March 1 – but by video camera.
He added: “I am very confident the justice will be ruled in my favour as I have overwhelming evidence to prove I was the rightful owner and was insured.”
Khan has been on the run since June 2018, after being jailed in his absence for ten years over a £500,000 number plate fraud.
He fled part-way through his trial. Since then he has been regularly posting pictures and videos from Dubai on Facebook.
His legal team stated it was wrongly
seized and destroyed by the force, claiming their client had valid insurance.
West Midlands Police has denied all the claims and points out Khan is a convicted fraudster “whose evidence cannot be trusted” in its defence papers to the court.
The force also refutes all suggestions any officers acted improperly in the seizure and destruction of the vehicle, which they claim should not have been insured as Khan had misled insurers about its Category B status and his past road offences.
The force also points out in its defence lodged at court that Khan had given various insurers wildly differing alleged values for the vehicle when obtaining insurance and had claimed to them that he was an airline pilot and worked in the catering industry.