Up For A Race?

Wealthy London residents clash with millionaire Arab boy racers

Residents in one of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods have accused the police of double standards for allegedly failing to clamp down on millionaire Arab playboys who race their supercars around the streets.

Home owners in the Knightsbridge area have become increasingly frustrated by the annual influx of young men who arrive in the capital each summer and recklessly drive their Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis close to the Harrods department store.
Locals claim the Metropolitan Police are not doing enough to stop the young men from driving dangerously and performing stunts known as drifting, when they deliberately slide their cars around tight corners.
A Cutting Edge documentary to be shown on Channel 4 charts the rising tensions between the locals and the millionaire visitors who arrive in London every summer for three months to escape the intense heat of the Gulf States.
Local Knightsbridge resident Justin Downes accused the police of double standards claiming if the motorists were British they would be arrested and charged with reckless driving.
He told the documentary: “I've seen the area move from being a very quiet, residential area to being cosmopolitan in a way which is rather extreme.
“They come in to the area around Harrods to show off their cars and drive recklessly in a way that if you were a UK citizen you would be prosecuted for dangerous driving.”
But the police insist they have seized dozens of foreign-owned supercars for a variety of alleged offences including driving without valid insurance and driving without the correct registration plates.
Fellow local resident Panda Morgan-Thomas said it is often impossible to sleep at night because of the sound of high powered vehicles racing around the streets.
She said: "There has been a lot of sports car racing. I'm inundated with local residents complaining, not being able to sleep and I think people's tempers are getting somewhat jaded.”
But those who are accused of taking part in the supercar races claim local residents have never complained to them personally.
Abdul Aziz Rashid, 27, who comes to the UK every year in a supercar, said: “I hear the residents always complain but they don't come to me to complain. If anyone complains about something I will respect it and try to fix it.
“We are foreigners here and we just come to have a good time and we always want to come here and not cause trouble or problems. If anybody speaks to me and asks me not to do something then I will not do it.”
Another, Abdul Aziz Al Rashed, who brought his £250,000 Lamborghini Aventador to London last summer said: “All of my friends were sad about having to go back to Kuwait. We had fun for three months and I'm sad that I have to leave to go back to the desert.”