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Drinking And Extra-Marital Affairs Rife In Dubai, Says Convicted Beach Romp Businessman

by Gopalan on Dec 30 2008 10:50 AM

Vince Acors, the British businessman convicted for beach romp in Dubai, on Monday charged that drinking and extra-marital affairs were rife in the desert city.

Five days after he was finally allowed to fly home to London, Acors dubbed Dubai as a city of excesses.

He said: 'Dubai is a massive contradiction.

'Everything is available but it is also illegal. Every single hotel has a bar and all of them have cheap or even free drink evenings.

'You are allowed to go to these places and drink a huge amount of alcohol but when you go outside you get arrested.'

He continued: 'In the bars and clubs people are openly affectionate.  You see all these local guys with girls. 

'You see people in relationships with people to whom they are not married.  

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'We were just doing what everyone else was.  But in our case we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.' 

Acors, from Bromley in Kent, travelled to Dubai in July this year for what was planned as a three-day business trip. 

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Whilst there he joined a group of friends at one of the city's infamous all-you-can drink brunches.

Four hours of eating and drinking later, he moved on to a nightclub where he met fellow Briton Michelle Palmer, 34, who was working in Dubai as a publishing saleswoman. 

Later the same evening the couple were arrested after being discovered semi-naked on a sun lounger on the city's Jumeirah beach, near to the iconic Burj Dubai hotel.

They were found guilty of having sex in public, acting indecently and being drunk in public, but an appeal court suspended their three month prison sentence and instead ordered they be deported.

Palmer, from Oakham in Rutland, has already returned home.

Acors denied that he and Miss Palmer had sex, but admitted that they had been 'overly affectionate'.

He claimed not to remember how much he had drunk, but said: 'We were both conscious of what was going on. 

'But obviously with consuming that amount of alcohol over a period of time, your judgment is going to be impaired.  And we both made some poor decisions that evening.'

Though he admitted he had been 'extremely naive', he appeared to blame the capricious nature of Dubai law - where something is tolerated one moment, but punished the next - for his ordeal.

He said: 'These brunches are famous. They are advertised on the flights when you go there. When you are there you pay a one-off fee and they keep filling up your glass.'

Describing the six months he spent on bail, Acors said: 'It has been difficult. Even out on bail you don't feel like you are really free.  You can't leave.  You can't work.  It was an extremely stressful experience

Under the terms of his deportation order, Acors, who runs his own telecoms company, is barred from returning to the city for three years.  However yesterday he claimed that he would like to return earlier.

He said: 'Whilst I was over there I made some useful business contacts. I am going to make an application to the UAE embassy here to go back. 

'Dubai has some major opportunities for me from a business perspective. I have no hard feelings towards the place.  There are some business opportunities that I would like to take up on my return.'

Acors said he ran up large legal fees defending himself and said he hopes to sell his story to a newspaper to help recoup the cost.

Source-Medindia
GPL/SK


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