Harry Kane’s hamstring surgeon in £78,000 battle with car dealership over stolen Bentley

A top Premier League surgeon who fixed Harry Kane’s hamstring is suing an iconic Mayfair “gentleman 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 a claim that it negligently failed to ensure the vehicle’s location was monitored by a registered electronic tracker if it was stolen.

After Mr Haddad’s Bentley Continental GTW12 was taken from his drive in January 2023, the surgeon tried to claim on his insurance, but he was knocked back by his insurers, who refused to pay up 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 – as he sues the firm 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 its reputation as a “gentleman car dealer” – is denying negligence, liability, and “foreseeability of loss”.

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The dealer denies undertaking to activate the Bentley’s tracker, insisting that Mr Haddad alone was responsible for doing so.

Mr Haddad is the clinical director of the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, and holds 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 tore his hamstring.

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Kane underwent surgery for a ruptured tendon, but was back in training by May 2020 and competing in the latter part of the specially extended Covid Premier League season.

The year before that, 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, the court heard.

The then brand-new model of the GTW12 featured a six-litre engine and an eight-speed gearbox along with a top speed of 207mph, and retailed for up to £200,000.

The car was stolen in 2023, and Mr Haddad put in an insurance claim, only to have it refused due to the tracker not being operational, as per the conditions of his policy. He is now suing Jack Barclay Ltd for £78,643 at Central London County Court.

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The surgeon’s barrister, Bradley Say, told Judge Andrew Holmes that Mr Haddad 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 ... 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 that was “live” for the first year of use, the subscription was never registered or renewed, so that by the time the car was stolen in 2023, the tracker was inoperative, the court heard.

Later enquiries revealed that the tracker had been fitted and commissioned by a Jack Barclay engineer, but was not registered as customer details had not been supplied to set up a subscription.

Speaking from the witness box, Mr Haddad said he had 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 the 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.”

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Defence barrister Sajid Suleman disputed the notion that any promise had been made by Jack Barclay staff to activate the tracker, 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.”

After a short hearing, the judge reserved his ruling in the case.