A top Premier League surgeon who fixed Harry Kane's hamstring is suing an iconic Mayfair “gentlemen car dealer” for £78,000 after the theft of his Bentley.
Fares Haddad, a world-acclaimed orthopaedic surgeon specialising in sports medicine, is suing Jack Barclay Ltd - the UK’s oldest Bentley dealership - over claims that it negligently failed to ensure his car’s location was monitored by a registered electronic tracker if stolen.
After Mr Haddad’s Bentley Continental GTW12 was pinched from his driveway in January 2023, the surgeon’s insurance claim was rejected because his Bentley wasn’t fitted with a properly activated tracker.
Mr Haddad, 58, now says he assumed that Jack Barclay’s staff would set up a continuing tracker subscription for him through Vodafone after conversations and email exchanges with a showroom executive in 2019 - when he was considering buying the Bentley.
He is now claiming a total of £78,643 from Jack Barclay Ltd - trading as Jack Barclay Bentley - suing for the return of money paid out under his HP agreement, which his insurers refused to cover after the theft.
But the dealership - which is famed for its iconic vintage Mayfair showroom and reputation as “gentlemen car dealers” - is denying all negligence, liability and “foreseeability of loss”.
The dealer denies undertaking to activate the Bentley’s tracker, insisting that Mr Haddad was alone responsible for doing so.
Mr Haddad is the clinical director of the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, with a special expertise in hip joint, knee reconstruction and major ligament injuries.
It was Mr Haddad who ended up saving the latter phase of then Tottenham forward Harry Kane’s 2019-20 season after the England captain - now at Bayern Munich - injured his hamstring.
Kane underwent surgery for a ruptured tendon, but was back in training by May 2020 and competing in the latter part of the Premier League season.
The year before in 2019, Mr Haddad had bought his Bentley Continental from Jack Barclay in part exchange for his former car, an Aston Martin, on the basis of a hire-purchase credit agreement, Central London County Court heard.
The then brand-new model of the GTW12 featured a 6-litre engine and 8-speed gearbox, a top speed of 207mph and retailed for up to £200,000.
The car was stolen in 2023 and Mr Haddad went on to put in an insurance claim, only to be refused due to the tracker not being operational, as per the conditions of his policy.
The surgeon’s barrister, Bradley Say, told Judge Andrew Holmes that he was assured when he bought his Bentley that “a tracker is standard on the car and I will set that up for you”.
“Mr Haddad made a particular point of asking him about the tracker when he picked up the vehicle because of the previous problems he had with the tracker on his Aston Martin,” explained Mr Say.
But although the car was sold with a tracker which was “live” for the first year of use, the subscription was never registered or renewed, so that by the time of the theft in 2023 it was dead, the court heard.
Later enquiries revealed that the tracker had been fitted and commissioned by a Jack Barclay engineer, but was not registered due to a lack of customer details being supplied to set up a subscription.
Giving evidence, Mr Haddad said he never received a contract from Vodafone to set up a subscription for the tracker, but had understood that everything would be arranged by Jack Barclay.
“I assumed they were setting it up for me and that it would be activated and functioning, and that if I needed to do anything I would be told what to do,” he said.
His barrister continued: “Mr Haddad says that had the tracker been activated and had he received reminders from Vodafone to renew, as would have occurred had the subscription been activated, he would have renewed the tracker subscription in the same way as with his motor insurance.
“Although he was aware that tracker subscription would have to be renewed after the initial 12 months, he assumed it was done automatically via a direct debit like the payments under his HP agreements.”
Defence barrister, Sajid Suleman, disputed there was any promise to activate the tracker by Jack Barclay staff, also arguing that the responsibility to activate the device “fell on Mr Haddad,” who was entirely to blame for failing to renew his subscription after the initial 12 months of ownership.
And he argued: “There was no contractual obligation on Jack Barclay Ltd to activate the subscription; there is also insufficient evidence, on the balance of probabilities, that the defendant promised to activate the subscription and therefore no collateral contract/warranty exists.
“Even if Jack Barclay Ltd activated the subscription in 2019, it would have expired after 12 months and long before the vehicle was stolen in 2023.
“Mr Haddad had an obligation under his insurance and HP agreement to ensure that the subscription had been activated. He failed in his contractual obligations, and that is the cause of his loss.”
Mr Haddad’s claim is worth £78,643. The judge will deliver his ruling at a later date.
