Man high on drugs arrested after falling asleep at wheel in Dubai petrol station

Emirati could not be woken by station staff, and he fell asleep again in the police patrol car.

DUBAI // A man high on drugs was arrested after he fell asleep while getting his car filled at a petrol station, a Dubai court heard on Sunday.

Station staff tried and failed to wake the 29-year-old Emirati, who also fell asleep in a police patrol car.

Prosecutors told Dubai Criminal Court that he had stopped his car for fuel at Enoc petrol station in Ras Al Khor on March 21. When he fell asleep and could not be woken, staff were compelled to call police for help.

Police moved him to their patrol car, where he fell asleep again. Officers had to push his car into a parking spot after failing to find his car keys. But officers did find 51 grams of hashish and 48 drug capsules in his car, prosecutors said.

“We also found two knives, a stun gun and a glass pipe used in smoking hash,” said a Pakistani police officer.

When asked his name, the defendant, who has a drug record in Abu Dhabi, gave his brother’s name. Police anti-narcotics department tests showed that he had consumed hashish and alcohol.

In court he denied charges of possessing and consuming drugs, and denied consuming alcohol and impersonation.

“I don’t know how the hashish was put in my car and, as for my confession to police officers, it was taken under force,” the accused said. A vedict is expected on June 29.