Men jailed after crashing Lamborghini into shops in London’s Mayfair

Talal Alkassab, 39, and Diyaa Lababidi, 33, who have both previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, stood quietly in the dock as they were sentenced at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Lababidi was at the wheel with Alkassab’s full permission when the supercar hit several bollards before ploughing into shops in the heart of London’s high-end Mayfair retail district, just after midnight on July 23 2015.

The two friends ran away and abandoned the car.

Alkassab, a restaurant owner and manager who had hired the Lamborghini a day before, told his friend not to report the incident to police as his insurance would not cover it.

Lababidi was not insured to drive the car.

Judge Deborah Taylor said Lababidi had been driving “fast and negligently” so the car hit a building and they had “decided to tell lies about it” to try to get themselves out of a situation they knew would be expensive.

She told told Alkassab the situation arose out of “a piece of extravagance and bravado” in hiring the car.

The judge pointed out that Alkassab did not go ahead with the fraud on an insurance company, which he had contacted after the crash and said he was the driver.

He told police an unknown customer at a nearby cafe where he worked had taken the keys without his knowledge and crashed the car while parking it.

Scotland Yard said CCTV images show the car had been driven up Woodstock Street before speeding up and smashing into the glass and metal shop fronts.

Two people then got out and the vehicle remained at the scene until it was recovered about three hours later.

The story fell apart after detectives uncovered text messages between Alkassab, of Holland Park Road, and Lababidi, of Praed Street, Paddington, both of west London.

It led Alkassab to eventually admit that his friend Lababidi had been driving.