New Dubai alcohol charge for sex in taxi Briton

British woman facing deportation for getting intimate in the back of a taxi is back in court in another alcohol-related case.

DUBAI // A British woman awaiting deportation for having sex in the rear of a Dubai taxi has found herself back in court – this time after an alcohol-fuelled party that ended in her friend karate-kicking an ambulance driver.

R B, 30, was celebrating her looming repatriation by drinking alcohol with her friend and compatriot R R B, 43, on March 9 this year at an apartment in Dubai Marina.

She began feeling severe pain in one of her ears and called an ambulance. But when it arrived her friend became confused and challenged the rescue crew – a driver and two nurses.

“He took a karate stand and screamed at us swearing,” the ambulance driver H A, from Yemen, told the Misdemeanour Court.

The man then charged at the driver and kicked him in the stomach. “I gave my colleagues the chance to pick up their gear and run away then I followed them running to the lift but the man continued chasing me,” said the ambulance driver.

The three rescuers escaped into a lift and reported the incident to the building’s reception and police.

Testimonies from both nurses backed up the ambulance driver’s account.

However, the British woman testified that she did not see her friend assault the driver, nor did she hear him swear at the rescue crew.

“He didn’t know they were rescuers because when I called them he was busy on the phone and didn’t hear me, and when they came he was surprised to see strange people.

“All he said was ‘what are they doing in my room?’. When I told him they were rescuers, he followed them to apologise.”

In the Misdemeanours Court the man, who has a previous conviction for drink-driving, confessed to drinking four glasses of vodka, but denied charges of assault and insult.

The woman admitted a charge of consuming alcohol without a licence. She presented a note written in Arabic to the court which read: “Honourable judge, I wish for you to give me a sentence today because I have completed a jail term in a previous case on August 13 and have been waiting to be deported ever since.

“I need to return to my country to take on a job waiting for me and to complete my treatment because my health condition has deteriorated. I was not arrested in this, I was helping a friend who was detained by bringing him some of his belongings ... alcohol was smelled on me so I was taken into custody.”

The court found both guilty of all charges. It sentenced the man to six months in prison while both face a fine of Dh2,000 for drinking alcohol without a licence.