'05 7th gen Civic GLi - oil leak, new cam belt???

[Alpine]

My father in-law's '05 7th gen Civic GLi with 50,000km on the clock yesterday started flashing the oil indicator light on the dash. Then it was discovered the oil was all leaking out onto the ground. The dipstick showed massive loss of oil even after topping up.

The vehicle was then taken to Ultratune where they did the following work and charged $500 to fix the problem:

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/9727/civiccambeltmedium.jpg

Now my questions. I believe this is extremely rare for a Honda (or any modern car for that matter) with such low mileage and overall "young" age of the car to start leaking oil and throw a cam belt?? Can this happen? What could cause this? It just seems premature to me, that's all.

I might add that the vehicle was just serviced at the same Ultratune two weeks ago for the 50,000km service...

[ksl]

you brought the car brand new or second hand? maybe the car be driving very hard before?

How often the car is serviced? also may lead to this problem.

but ya, is very rare that the cam belt need to change only 50k km.

Did you see the old cam belt when you picked up the car?

[Alpine]

The car was a demo. (kinda says it all, doesn't it)

First two services at Honda. Most recent three services at Ultratune...

No, I didn't see the old belt, I wasn't the one who picked it up. My in-laws are tightasses and clueless when it comes to cars, and I freaked out when I found out where they were taking it and what happened with this oil leak/cam belt crap...

It's just unusual for this to happen to such a low mileage car, that's all, so wondering what could cause it? Surely simply being driven very hard couldn't be the cause? I can't help but think shonky servicing??

[Alpine]

One explanation I have received is this:

"they replaced a cranckshaft oil seal which they have to take damn near everything off he crank on that side and replace the end seal. They took off the gear that has the timing belt on it and if your already in there you might as well replace it. its called preventative maintenance"

Assuming this is correct, how can it be common for a crankshaft oil seal to fail on such a low mileage car??? Or could it be due to the wrong oil used or some other human error or servicing neglect? I'm just wondering how this could happen.