Two Emirati officers on patrol near Jumeirah Beach Residence found a two-man vessel seemingly abandoned on the beach in April after its owner became tired from hauling it out of the water, the Dubai Misdemeanour Court heard yesterday.
They tracked the vessel to a 34-year-old Turkish marketing manager KB who told them he was taking it for a test-dive after buying it from a ship manufacturing company.
The manager said he first enquired about the white submarine after finding it dumped in a factory in Al Quoz in September 2011. The vessel was said to have been abandoned by a British manager in the ship manufacturing company seven years ago and was old and damaged.
"I asked if it was for sale and they agreed to sell it to me after maintenance for Dh35,000," said the manager.
He transported the vessel, which is built from fibreglass and weighs 567kg, to the beach on the back of his pick-up truck before lowering it onto the beach and pulling it into the water for the test dive.
The vessel, which can reach speeds of up to 5mph, is designed to dive to 130ft, but the manager said that after a 30-minute dive he noticed it was leaking and returned to shore.
He became exhausted pulling the submarine up the beach and decided to leave it. "I was tired and took the battery with me so no one can use it, and after couple of days I received a call asking me to come to the police station," he said.
The officers charged him with illegally cruising in Dubai waters in an unregistered submarine.
The man's lawyer said that he had planned to register the submarine, but needed to check it worked first.
The judge fined him Dh1,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment