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vaultingSlinky said:
Still its not very compassionate is it.
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No, but at risk of sounding totally heartless it is a harsh world.

He did mess it up, and there is little other than charity that anyone can do.

If the embassy (British Government) paid his personal debt, it would then open up the flood gates for thousands of more people and possibly even encourage irresponsibility and recklessness for that matter.
 
At least its warm! :p

I'd help him out too if I could, he seems a nice guy. But he is stupid, and the world is full of stupid people who put themselves in situations like that.
 
KNiVES said:
He can't go on any flights, they've taken his passport off him. He's essentially in a nation-wide open prison as he cannot get any jobs or get any flights because the passport is a means of identification for them. Why the British Embassy hasn't helped him yet is beyond me. It's a pretty barbaric thing to do, even if he was acting dubious with his money.
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See the bit that confused me is that the BBC news article seems to make it sounds like the Bank has taken his passport. Foreign country or not, I wouldn't have though anyone other than the Police/Government would have the power to do that.

It also raises an interesting question about whether they have the right to take his passport, as a foreign national when he has not been charged with a specific crime which he is under investigation for. I'm sure he could claim its a breach of his human rights, but I'm guessing he can't afford the kind of legal advice that might help with that in his current predicament.

I've also got to agree that it seems silly that he went on a holiday if he was in so much debt. I'm aware of a few people I went to school with who are now in Dubai, making big money and living quite lavish lifestyles. Trouble is though, it's not a Western country... despite what the image they have tried to portray suggests and it's best as a foreigner to always keep your nose clean.


On another note, I thought it was funny how in the article he mentions sleeping rough in the UK.... I highly doubt he has ever slept rough in the UK!
 
This guy clearly wasn't clued up to have walked into that much debt, you can see how he fell straight into this situation.

I remember reading somewhere that UK Passports are her majesty's property. Not that it'll help...

"Still its not very compassionate is it."
Totally agree, and it's funny that Al Megrahi was released (I know that's Libya, and I didn't agree anyway) yet this reasonable but stupid man is left to get shafted.

I don't think it'll open the floodgates if the government steps in this time. If nothing is done then, what use is our embassy?
 
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what the heck this poor bloke is stuck there because the bank told the police to take his passport. He finally got enough to pay back the 6k they wanted and they practically doubled it. So he is now sleeping rough with no passport cant get a job without one.

What the heck is he going to do.. :(
 
I find it incredible that this guy doesn't have any friends or family who can help him out to pay off the debts and gtfo of there. :confused:

He knows no one who can loan him the money or get a loan on his behalf.....

I would do it for my friends without a moments hesitation.
 
My Flatmate used to work with the guy. He isn't sleeping rough, he's sleeping in his friends' sofas. He racked up loads of debt on his credit cards going to thailand for 3 months, seychelles etc then went back to england for a few months not paying off his credit cards. Bank assumed that he'd done a runner and put a mark on his file saying so.
In Dubai its pretty serious to default on debt so as soon as he went through immigration he got arrested. In Dubai they keep your passport when you get arrested to stop you leaving the country and never coming back when you're on bail. The Embassy knows this and won't issue you a new one unless you get a report from the police saying it's been lost/stolen, which obviously won't happen if you're on bail.
so anyway he's sold his story for 15k and making himself out to be blameless.
 
In my opinion he took the high risk, high return option by leaving the UK to chase money abroad. he's been paying no tax to the UK government, yet expects them to help him out of this mess. I do feel sorry for him, but when you play with fire you're going to get burned.
 
So what happens in UK if you are in debt you can't pay off? Do you go to jail or do they take everything you have and then you end up being on the streets on your own?

If this story is true then he can't do anything but die on the streets. He should be jailed if what he's done was crime in there.
 
Hamish said:
My Flatmate used to work with the guy. He isn't sleeping rough, he's sleeping in his friends' sofas.
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The news article and video states that originally that was what he was doing, but his friends have since stopped that because they don't want to be dragged into assisting him in a foreign country where they can be considered aiding a 'criminal.

Aside from somebody offering charity or the embassy actually doing something, I don't see how he can actually get out of this situation. Surely he isn't the first though....

Somebody else here suggested that his best option may be to try and leave the country and get a temporary passport issued by an Embassy elsewhere.

Only reasons I can think he hasn't tried that already is that I assume if he was caught trying to leave the country again, without a passport then that would be considered very serious. Obviously the UAE is quite small, and I can't pretend I know anything about their boarder and how easy it would be for him to get through.

The second point is that obviously he has no money, I'm sure a friend might lend him a little to get about Oman or Saudi. I imagine though that if he could get through the boarder, he would most likely be too afraid to do that as he would be leaving the relative safety of the 'Western-Esque' UAE and Dubai. It again highlights the difference of how different the place is to home, especially when you consider its neighbors, it's not like hoping countries in Europe.
 
apatia77 said:
So what happens in UK if you are in debt you can't pay off? Do you go to jail or do they take everything you have and then you end up being on the streets on your own?

If this story is true then he can't do anything but die on the streets. He should be jailed if what he's done was crime in there.
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In the UK you would be declared bankrupt.
Judges do have the power to send somebody to prison, but it's a last resort option.

The lenders would obviously reclaim all your assets that they could and you would be able to claim help from the state to 'keep you alive' so to speak (or in a good state of living for many in this country!). Even serving a short term prison sentence in our country is probably better than the equivalent in UAE.
 
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