Thousands of the finest automobiles ever made have been abandoned every year since Dubai's financial meltdown, left by fleeing expats and locals alike because they face crippling debts.

Dubai, in recent years has been facing the unusual problem of high end sports cars being left to gather thick layers of dust at airport car parks.

Once the hub of the oil economy and the centre of a booming property market, foreigners, mostly British, invested in the red hot market.

Newly wealthy expats bought the latest Italian and German sports cars to compliment their millionaire lifestyles- before the global economic crisis. With big loans to repay to the banks (unpaid debt or even bouncing a cheque is a criminal offence in Dubai), panicked car owners speed to the airport and leave their vehicles in the car park, hopping on the next flight out of there, never to return.

Messynessychic