Manager 'assaulted woman who came to collect dead son's car'

Businessman denies assaulted a 51-year-old mother and her daughter.

DUBAI // A car repair shop manager today denied assaulting a 51-year-old mother and her daughter when they came to collect a vehicle left there by her dead son two years ago.

MK, from Saudi Arabia, and her daughter visited the shop in Port Saeed on January 11 to reclaim the car. Her son had sent the vehicle to be repaired two years ago but died before he could collect it. The car was said to have remained in the shop despite several attempts by the women to collect it following the death.

On this occasion, when the women arrived to meet the manager, a 59-year-old Emirati referred to as SA, they ignored his secretary and barged into his office while he was in the middle of a meeting.

"I told them I was in a meeting and asked if I could see them the next day because I was very busy but she started insulting me and praying that bad happens to me," said the manager.

The women claimed that he threatened to harm their family, but the manager said he merely asked them to leave his office. He denied allegations by the woman's 24-year-old daughter that he pushed her towards the door causing her an injury to her right hand as well as bruisings. He also denied her claims that he said insulting things about the police.

"When she said she was calling the police, I didn't insult police, I just told her that I wasn't scared of the police as I hadn't done anything wrong," said the businessman.

"I did not threaten to hurt her, her children or anybody that takes her side," he added.

The manager, who is on trial in the Dubai Misdemeanours Court, denied charges of threatening to harm the two women. He was said to have called the woman a beggar and her daughter an "impolite bitch". The mother is also charged with insulting the manager. "May I see all your family as beggars," she is alleged to have told him.

EJ, a 63-year-old Emirati, testified that he was with the manager in his office when the women arrived. He said that the manager did not insult them and that he did not see him pushing the daughter out of his office.

However, the daughter said that the witness was not in the room at the time and could not have heard or seen anything. "I saw him outside the office as we were leaving," she said.

The daughter provided the prosecution with a recording of a short exchange she had with the manager in which he allegedly insulted her and her mother.

A verdict was scheduled for May 21.