London, May 18 (ANI): A British businesswoman faces up to three years in jail for allegedly having sex with an Irishman in the backseat of a taxi in Dubai, while she was drunk.
Rebecca Blake, 29, and Conor McRedmond were arrested after an all-day drinking binge.
They were held for five days and accused of having sex outside marriage and being drunk in a public place - both criminal offences in the strict Islamic state.
The 29-year-old, a recruitment consultant, met McRedmond at The Irish Village, a hotel bar where patrons pay 10 pounds a head for an all-you-can-drink brunch event.
After drinking for 12 hours, the pair hailed a cab towards Dubai Marina.
According to police reports, minutes later they were spotted in a passionate embrace by the driver in his rear view mirror.
Incensed by their behaviour, the driver stopped and complained to police in a patrol car parked nearby.
When he returned with an officer, they saw Blake having sex on the back seat of the cab with McRedmond, it is alleged.
"They were completely drunk, started kissing and then got carried away. That's when they started having sex," the Daily Mail quoted a source as saying.
"When the police officer went over, he found the woman was completely naked and they were having sex on the back seat," the source said.
Blake works for global recruitment firm Manpower in Dubai. She is from Croydon, South London, and was educated at her local Catholic high school.
After their arrest the two of them were taken to the nearby Jebel Ali police station and held in custody from May 4 to May 9.
Police took DNA samples to prove that they had had sex and had been drinking.
Officers are waiting for the results to come back from the forensic laboratory before they send the pair to court.
They were released on bail only when two separate friends acted as guarantors and handed over their passports.
On Tuesday, she claimed that she had not been arrested on suspicion of having sex and insisted she had been alone in the back of the cab.
"I have no idea where these sex allegations have come from because none were put to me by the authorities. I was arrested for having a bottle of beer in the back of a cab, not having sex. That is all. I was alone in the vehicle," she is reported to have said an interview.
McRedmond, who is thought to work for an engineering firm, also denies the charges.
Under Dubai law, those convicted of having sex outside marriage face a sentence of between one month and three years.
Consumption of alcohol is punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to 340 pounds.
Foreign nationals jailed in Dubai are deported immediately after they complete their sentences.
The case highlights the difficulties faced by more than 100,000 British people who live in Dubai.
Officials in the Gulf state have prosecuted several people from Britain for indecent behaviour over the past five years. (ANI)
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