The Sun reports that a British estate agent spent three weeks in jail in Dubai after sending a highly critical WhatsApp message to a car dealer.
Yaseen Killick, 29, from Kingston in London, spent £6,000 on a second-hand VW Golf but complained when he realised the vehicle had at one time been written off.
“How do you sleep at night knowing you are ripping people off?” wrote Killick, adding that “It’s so morally wrong what you are doing and I hope that me taking you to court will stop you trying to defraud other people and stealing their money.”
He also said that the dealer’s description of the car’s previous owner as being an airline company worker who used the vehicle only occasionally was “all lies”.
Killick ended up being arrested at Dubai airport as he was to return to the UK for a Christmas break.
The agent is quoted by The Sun as saying, back in Britain: “It was a nightmare. The prison conditions were horrific. I was treated appallingly - all for sending a WhatsApp message.”
His wife Robyn, a teacher, is quoted as saying: “We have lost our home and our jobs and it's been horrible all over this guy ripping us off and we are so badly out of pocket. We went there to try as a last adventure before coming back to England and getting married and starting a family but it's left us really badly out of pocket."
You can see The Sun piece here.
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When in Rome, do as the Romans do. It is pretty stupid/arrogant to go to a very foreign country and assume that everything is done there in the same way that it is done in England. Buying a car through Gumtree in UK is fraught with danger (I have reported 3 obvious frauds to them) so buying a car in Dubai through the equivalent outlet is clearly risky. The man seems not to have understood local rules either for car sales or for internet complaints. Perhaps he should have taken advice from the many expats who live there? Or better, made friends with locals and taken their advice?
Be quiet Michael. Writing a negative message to someone is hardly worthy of jail time.
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