DUBAI // A British man who assaulted his wife of 12 years when she found him with another woman has been fined Dh2,000.

F F, 35, attacked his wife when she arrived at his villa with their eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter on February 7. The man’s British lover, N T, 33, was also charged with assault, although she was acquitted.

The estranged wife, D F, said she had her husband’s permission to go to the villa that morning to collect her belongings.

She said the lover started questioning her about why she was there and was screaming at her.

“My husband then came and he started quarrelling with the woman, so I took my children and walked out of the villa,” said the wife.

But, she said, while she was seating the children in the car, N T “said she was going to kill me and called me bad names”.

D F said that when she got into the car, the lover jumped into the passenger’s seat and assaulted her, as did her husband.

“When he came, that woman looked at him and yelled at him, ‘What are you waiting for?’ then he joined in the assault,” said D F, who managed to drive away.

The wife said the pair chased her in his car and forced her to stop by stopping his car in front of hers. She said her husband then got out of his car and tried to pull her out of the driver’s seat, while his lover hit her with a purse.

“They saw a car driving near us so they fled,” said D F, who went to Jebel Ali police station and reported the incident.

“My children were screaming and they saw everything and there is a camera in the villa that can prove what I’m saying,” she told police.

The husband went to the police station after being called by officers but denied D F’s story and said they were divorced.

“She came to the villa when my fiancee and I were packing because we were moving to a new villa,” said the husband, a sales representative.

He said that D F went to the second floor in the villa with their two children and argued with his fiancee.

“My fiancee then walked out of the villa to avoid making any problems with D F,” F F said. “Then I took my children away because D F was screaming loudly before she followed N T out and pulled her by her hair. I pushed her away from N T and she fell to the ground.”

The lover said: “I didn’t assault her or insult her – she did that to me. I tried to have her stop, at least for the sake of the children, but then I left her and walked out of the villa.”

The defendants were not present at Dubai Court of Misdemeanours on their first hearing to enter a plea. No reasons for the verdicts were available.

salamir@thenational.ae