DUBAI // A row over an unpaid bar bill has landed six people in court on charges of assault, issuing insults and consuming alcohol without a licence.
Records showed that on October 23, four Ethiopian security guards at the Regal Plaza hotel in Bur Dubai assaulted two Britons for allegedly failing to pay their bill. Two customers, A N, 38, and C T, 46, allegedly insulted the guards.
“I was with A N and a second friend, who paid the bill for the alcohol we drank then left the place,” said C T. He noted that after his friend had paid and left, a waiter brought over another bottle of alcohol.
“We told him we didn’t want it, but he left it anyway. Then I can’t really remember if we had it or not, but when we were about to leave the place we were stopped until I paid for that bottle.
“I didn’t have cash on me and told them I can leave my phone as a guarantee and whatever cash I had in my wallet.”
C T said he did not know what happened about the bill, but remembered being taken into a small room and being assaulted by a number of men.
A N testified that they had been asked to pay the bill. When they could not they were asked to talk to the manager outside. “There were four guards with the manager and suddenly they threw us from the stairs and assaulted C T,” he said.
A medical report showed C T had suffered bruises and fractured ribs.
The security guards told a different story, claiming that A N and C T had refused to pay their bill and started making a fuss.
“When we went to calm them down they insulted us, calling us ‘animal Africans’. They also mentioned my mother in an insulting remark. One of them ran outside and fell off the stairs, injuring himself,” E A, 34, said.
The guards were accused of assault and the two Britons accused of issuing insults. Once at the police station, however, each side dropped the case against the other.
C T and A N were then referred to the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours on charges of consuming alcohol without a licence, where they were convicted and fined Dh1,000 each.
salamir@thenational.ae