Dubai: A bank’s debt collector has been accused of seizing for himself a mortgaged Jaguar that had been deserted by its buyer, who absconded after failing to honour his car loan.
An Indian man was said to have taken a bank loan to purchase a Jaguar 2013 and used the car for some time before financial burdens forced him to dump the vehicle and leave the country in June 2017.
Once it was realised that the client had failed to honour his loan payments, the bank commissioned the debt collection department to repossess the mortgaged car, court records show.
The Syrian debt collector, thereafter, tried to communicate with the Indian buyer, who turned out to have left the country.
The debt collector discovered that the Indian client had left the car keys with his friend, who communicated with the Syrian and arranged to hand him the keys.
Not auctioned off
As part of the bank’s procedures, the jaguar was supposed to be auctioned off. But when it was discovered that the car had been illegally repossessed by the Syrian man, prompting the bank’s management to take legal action against the debt collector.
Police interrogations revealed that the car had been repossessed, and was left with the brother of the Syrian debt collector, who happened to have gone on leave but never returned to Dubai.
Records said the Syrian man had kept the Jaguar in his possession for more than a month.
Prosecutors accused the suspect of abusing his authority as a bank collector and seizing the Dh193,000-worth car for himself for some time.
The Syrian is identified as an absconder in prosecution papers.
The suspect failed to appear before the Dubai Court of First Instance where he was scheduled to show up on Sunday.
An Egyptian debt collector testified to prosecutors that the incident happened after the Indian client failed to honour the car loan payments.
“We communicated with him by email and he referred us to arrange with his friend to get back the car," he told prosecutors.
Jaguar repossessed
"We discovered that the suspect had repossessed the Jaguar but failed to deliver it to the bank to be auctioned. The friend sent us screenshots of WhatsApp images and messages confirming that the suspect had sent a tow truck to repossess the vehicle," he added.
"When contacted, the suspect’s brother told us that the suspect went on leave to Syria … we called the suspect in Syria and he told us that the car was parked behind his house in Ajman. The brother cooperated with the bank and gave the car keys to collect it,” he said.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi adjourned the case until the suspect is legally notified about the upcoming hearing on March 11.
