Dubai: A drunk student scratched a taxi driver’s face because he refused to take her and her sisters to Abu Dhabi after she lit a cigarette in his cab, a court heard.
The 22-year-old Saudi student was said to have drunk four glasses of alcohol before she and her two sisters asked the Pakistani taxi driver to take them to Abu Dhabi.
Records said the 28-year-old driver picked up the three sisters from the Business Bay area and was heading towards Shaikh Zayed Road when the incident happened in July.
The driver stopped on the service road and immediately asked the student to stop smoking otherwise he would have to ask them to get out of the cab, according to prosecution records.
The Saudi defendant claims that she scratched the driver’s face because he slapped her when she asked him if she could smoke.
Prosecutors accused the 22-year-old student of consuming alcohol.
When the defendant appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court she admitted to drinking alcohol although she does not have a permit to do so.
The court fined the student Dh1,000 for getting drunk.
The Pakistani claimed during prosecution questioning that the three sisters hired him to drive them to Abu Dhabi.
“I asked the woman who sat in the front passenger seat to buckle her seat belt but she refused. Then one of the sisters who sat in the back lit a cigarette… when I asked her to stub out her cigarette, she refused. I pulled over at the side of the road immediately and informed the three women that I wouldn’t drive them to their destination because they had violated the rules. The woman in the front seat [the student] slapped me. I called the police and informed them what happened,” said the driver.
The Saudi woman said during questioning that she assaulted the driver after he slapped her.
The Pakistani denied hitting the student.
The woman was taken into custody as soon as it was realised she had consumed liquor.
Records did not mention why the student and taxi driver were not prosecuted for assault.
