The man hired a Lamborghini Huracán for two days, and racked up the fines in just four hours. Photo / Getty Images

Tourist racks up $69k in speeding fines

News
World

Author: news.com.au,
Publish Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2018, 10:05AM

Drive it like you hired it: A British visitor took just three hours to clock up 33 speeding tickets.

Now he's involved in a stand-off over the fines, the $500,000 luxury Lamborghini, and getting his passport back.

The 25-year-old man rented a luxury supercar in Dubai, then repeatedly broke the speed limit as he belted down some of the city's busiest roads over a period of four hours early on Tuesday, the state-owned newspaper the National reports.

In just hours after it was hired from the city's Saeed Ali Rent a Car, the vehicle racked up a staggering Dh170,000 ($68,700) in 33 separate speeding penalties. The tourist driver triggered radars at every speed camera on the Sheik Zayed Rd at speeds of between 126km/h and 230km/h, according to the police report.

He reached a top speed of 230km/h, according to the newspaper.

The dealership owners said they received notifications of offences between 2.31am and 6.26am on July 31, the day after he hired the Lamborghini Huracán and left his passport as a guarantee.

The tourist is now involved in a stand-off over the fines, the $480,000 luxury Lamborghini, and getting his passport back. Photo / supplied

And therein lies the standoff: they haven't claimed the car back yet, because they, as registered owners, might be liable to pay the speeding tickets.

"We can't pay this amount should the car be taken into impound, it's still with the tourist, parked at his hotel … and I won't be trying to take it back," dealership partner Faris Mohammed Iqbal told the National.

"Then who pays the money for the impound? We shouldn't do so for sure, it's his fault and he should pay that amount," he added.

The fines were issued against the car's registered owner because the driver was a tourist.

This means he could be free to leave the country, although his lack of a passport could make that difficult.

"I was fearing that he may go to his embassy claiming that he lost his passport in order to get a new one then leave the country," Iqbal told the National.

"I can't keep his passport with me for long".

Iqbal has informed the British Embassy of the incident.

The dealership still has the tourist's passport as the disagreement over payment continues.