UAE

Student crashes into police cars and assaults officer after stunt driving in Dubai, court hears

Police chased the student, who was driving recklessly in a Dubai neighbourhood, for 20 minutes before arresting him

Salam Al Amir
Salam Al Amir

November 05, 2017

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A student who was stunt driving in his neighbourhood, ignored police patrols, endangered officers’ lives, resisted arrest and assaulted an officer following a 20 minute car chase, Dubai Criminal Court was told on Sunday.

At almost 4am on June 12, the Emirati, 21, was reported to police for reckless driving in Al Warqaa.

“The operations room received a report about him and had sent a number of police patrols to his location, then we heard a call for back up and responded to it,” said an Emirati police officer, 24.

He said the call mentioned that the accused was endangering peoples’ lives and driving his mother’s Mitsubishi Pajero recklessly.

Police chased him for twenty minutes in the residential area where the man drove at 100kmh in a 40kmh road, the court heard.
"We tried to stop him but he wouldn't stop. He drove towards us at high speed and when he was few meters away from us he hit the brakes, his car crashed into police cars pushing one towards the cement barrier," said the officer, who was inside the patrol car.

He told the court that he got out of the car and went to arrest the student.
"I opened the driver's door but he immediately shut it and grabbed my arm, then he reached out to a hammer on the passenger's seat to hit me with but I managed to free my arm," said the policeman, who suffered injuries from the crash and from the student's broken window.
A number of officers gathered around the car and arrested the driver.
"I didn't feel he was normal and when we finally arrested him, we found a syringe in his car, I think he was on drugs," the officer said.
Another police officer told the court he saw the defendant breaking the window deliberately. "He used the hammer to break it," the 37-year-old Emirati said.

He said the accused broke the window to escape but police quickly circled him.
The student did not attend court to enter a plea. The next hearing will be held on November 12 to summon him.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

CourtsUAE