rip became in Arabian lightmare
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R Scots haulage con tracarrived home after a tmare trip to Saudi Arabia ith a warning. They were bf a contingent of a dozen ; who left their homes and lies three months ago to fottunes in the Middle ,eir nightmare began a a Dundee-based cornr, Anvil Property & Invlent, advertised for .;r-divers of modern tracmits for work in Saudi.
e drivers paid £1,000 to 11 to ship each vehicle.
r claimed they were pro d earnings of £1,000 a rr; a garage staffed by s mechanics; accommoin in a luxury villa with le, TV and swimming and trailers supplied to r out contracts.
t the reality was very difit.
e first shock for the Scots ; when their tractive units ed a the docks in Jeddah. e weeks passed before the [is released their vehicles me 14.
.t worse was to come. The s claimed there was no for them, no garage, they had to sleep eight to a room, and there were no trailers.
And the biggest blow came when they discovered that to operate commercially they had to sign their vehicles over to a Saudi sponsor who became the technical owner.
"We're sorry we ever went to the Middle East," said Jim Gunn, 38. "We signed our wagons over to our sponsor, Sheik Yathreb. Now we're back home to renew our visas because we must return to Saudi. You see, we can't even get our wagons back home. Under Saudi law we must offer them for sale to one of their 'nationals — obviously at a knockdown price.
"My Mercedes lorry is worth £4,500 and it will take us ages to go on working there to try to recoup our losses."
Another of the drivers — Bob Welsh (31), of Edinburgh — added: "I paid out my life savings on a Volvo lorry on the strength of what I was told by Anvil about my potential earnings in Saudi. 1 got no work out of Anvil. They were supposed to take a percentage of our earnings, but we made nothing."