Umair Bhatti pleaded guilty to the theft of a sports car. (Representational Image)
A 30-year-old Indian-origin businessman, who ran a vehicle storage firm in the UK, today pleaded guilty to the theft of a sports car.
Umair Bhatti had taken the black Porsche SPO Sports Model 912 from an underground car park near the London Eye and sold it to pay off his debts.
He was released on bail today by Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court in London and will be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court later this month, reported the 'Evening Standard'.
"It appears that the vehicle was sold off by the defendant. The owner of the car received a letter on February 17, notifying him and giving him 14 days to respond," Prosecutor Robert Chambers told the court.
The car had been left by its owner, businessman Arslan Khan, at Bhatti's airport meet-and-greet firm Garaged.com.
Bhatti, a self-confessed "petrolhead", rented out parking spaces in the car park as the owner of Garaged.com and was employed by Khan while the businessman was out of the country.
After Bhatti applied to register a change of ownership of the Porsche, Khan received a letter informing him of the changes.
Khan returned to the UK briefly to move the car to another part of the car park and alert the authorities, but Bhatti took off his handwritten note and had the car towed away instead.
After his arrest, Bhatti had initially claimed that he had bought the car from Khan for 20,000 pounds. Subsequently, he admitted that he had been under pressure to pay off debts for building work.
A charge of fraud by false representation was dropped and the court admitted the charge of theft.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)