Fares Haddad court update: Harry Kane’s surgeon awarded £37,000 in battle with Jack Barclay over stolen Bentley
A distinguished surgeon known for treating England captain Harry Kane’s hamstring injury has been awarded £37,000 compensation from Britain’s oldest Bentley dealer after his new luxury car was stolen.
Professor Fares Haddad, a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine, successfully sued Mayfair-based Jack Barclay Ltd.
The claim centered on the dealer’s alleged negligence in failing to arrange electronic tracking service for his vehicle.
Prof Haddad’s Bentley Continental GTW12 was stolen from his garage in January 2023. But when he tried to claim his insurance, payment was denied because the car’s tracking system was not properly activated.
Although staff at Jack Barclay, known for its prestigious Mayfair showroom and known as “gentleman car dealers”, had installed state-of-the-art tracking software, no major subscription service was active.
Mr Haddad, 58, said he assumed Jack Barclay’s staff would set up a recurring subscription through Vodafone.
This understanding stemmed from conversations and email exchanges with a showroom manager who was considering purchasing Bentley in 2019.
He claimed a total of £78,643 from Jack Barclay Ltd, trading as Jack Barclay Bentley, and sued for the return of money paid under the HP settlement, which insurers refused to cover after the theft – plus £4,000 for the cost of a new hire car.
Following a hearing at Central London District Court, Judge Andrew Holmes ruled in the surgeon’s favour, finding that the dealership was at fault in not sending Vodafone an email to initiate the tracker.
The judge told the court: “However, there would have been no loss to Prof Haddad had the form not been sent to Vodafone; had the follow-up subscription been initiated Prof Haddad would have taken the necessary steps to continue it.”
But it ruled that the professor himself was also responsible for not realizing there was no subscription until his prized Bentley was taken from his driveway by thieves in April 2023.
The judge reduced the £82,643 award by 60 per cent to £33,057, reflecting Prof Haddad’s “contributory negligence”, but with accrued interest his total award will rise to just over £37,000.
Prof Haddad is clinical director of the Institute for Sport, Exercise and Health and has particular expertise in hip joint, knee reconstruction and major ligament injuries.
It was Prof Haddad who saved then-Tottenham striker Harry Kane’s second phase of the 2020 season after the star striker, now at Bayern Munich, ruptured his hamstring.
Kane underwent surgery for a ruptured tendon and although he missed most of the Premier League season, he returned to training in May 2020 and competed in the second division of the specially extended Covid Premier League.
The court heard that a year earlier, in 2019, Mr Haddad bought his Bentley Continental from Jack Barclay on the basis of a hire-purchase loan deal in exchange for his old car, an Aston Martin.
The then brand new model of the GTW12 featured a 6-litre engine and 8-speed transmission, had a top speed of 207 miles per hour and retailed for up to £200,000.
The car was stolen in 2023 and Mr Haddad made an insurance claim but it was rejected due to the tracking device not working as per the policy conditions.
The surgeon’s lawyer, Bradley Say, told Judge Holmes that when he bought the Bentley he was assured that “a tracking device was standard on the car and I will install it for you”.
“Due to previous problems he had with the tracking device on his Aston Martin, Mr Haddad specifically asked him about the tracking device when he picked up the vehicle,” Mr Say explained.
Subsequent investigations revealed the tracker had been installed and commissioned by a Jack Barclay engineer but was never registered because customer information was not provided to create a subscription, the court heard.
Speaking in the witness box, Mr Haddad said he had not received any contract from Vodafone for the tracker subscription but understood everything would be arranged by Jack Barclay.
“I was assuming they would set it up for me, it would be activated and working, and if I needed to do anything I would be told what to do,” he said.
“As Bentley is a high-end car and after-sales support is comprehensive, I had faith that Bentley would contact me if anything needed to be done to the car, including a tracking device.”
Mr Haddad claimed that if the tracker had been activated and he had received a reminder from Vodafone to renew the contract, he would have done so in the same way as with car insurance.
Although he was aware that his follower subscription had to be renewed after 12 months, he assumed this was done automatically via direct debit.
But defense lawyer Sajid Suleman disputed that Jack Barclay staff made any promises to activate the tracking device, and also argued that the responsibility for activating the device “fell entirely on Mr Haddad”, who was at fault.
In making his decision, Judge Holmes found that Jack Barclay, the sales manager who dealt with Prof Haddad, “agreed to install the tracking device”, which was an “assumption of responsibility” on his part.
The manager who took it upon himself to arrange things for the client probably “failed to submit the form.”
He said Prof Haddad, whom he described as a “clearly honest witness”, admitted he was aware the tracker was based on an annual subscription but assumed direct debit had been set up when he bought the Bentley.
Prof Haddad told the court it was not always easy for him to keep track of his bank expenses, as he had around 50 direct debits coming out of his accounts each month.
The judge found that Prof Haddad could be excused for not realizing there was no subscription in his first year as owner of the company, but added: “I find there is serious force in the suggestion that Prof Haddad had a responsibility to ensure that the tracking device was activated thereafter.
“With each passing year, it becomes more difficult to understand why their records went unnoticed or unchecked.
“An ordinary person, going about his or her own business in the ordinary course of time, would be expected to discover over time that he or she has not made payment or received correspondence regarding an important point regarding the insurance of a valuable vehicle.
“In my opinion, he is 60 percent responsible for the loss he suffered.”
A finding of contributory negligence towards Prof Haddad means the amount payable to him will be reduced by 60 per cent from £82,643 to £33,057, although he will receive just over £37,000 with interest.
