Man sells fake UAE job visas, swindles engineer of Dh64,000

A businessman was charged at a Dubai court on Tuesday with fraud after he allegedly duped an Indian man of Dh64,000 in entry permit and labour contract scam.

The Court of First Instance heard how the 25-year-old Pakistani businessman fooled the victim that he could arrange employment visas issued for him and sent copies of labour contracts and entry permits to the victim in May 2018. However, the victim found out that the papers were fake only after losing Dh64,000.

The businessman has an accomplice, who is still at large.

Prosecutors accused him of forgery, use of forged documents and fraud.

During the public prosecution investigation, the complainant, a 28-year-old engineer, recounted that in May last year, he went to Port Saeed in Al Muraqqabat. "I wanted to visit a tourism agency to have visas issued for my friends. There, I met the defendant, who offered to get me those visas and charged me Dh7,000 for each."

The engineer told the prosecutor he paid the accused Dh7,000 upfront and later Dh57,000.

"The businessman later handed over to me six visas, which I sent to my friends. However, one of them found his visa was forged when he arrived here. I filed a complaint at Al Muraqqabat police station," the victim recalled, adding that the defendant gave him labour contracts, falsely claiming they were issued from the Ministry of Emiratisation and Human Resources, and enclosed them to the entry permits.

According to a letter from the said ministry, dated December 9, 2018, the contracts were all fake and tampered with.

The entry permits were forged as well, as shown in a letter from the Federal Authority of Identity and Naturalisation.

During the public prosecution investigation, the defendant admitted he delivered the forged documents to the victim, claiming he received them from his runaway accomplice. 

The trial has been postponed to February 26.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

Marie Nammour

Originally from Lebanon, Marie has been covering the Dubai Courts and the Public Prosecution, immigration and labour issues often, Lebanese community-related affairs and the Dubai International Film Festival. A graduate from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh, a city to the north of Beirut, Marie worked as an in-house reporter, covering international affairs for the LBCI and the LBC Sat (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International), a leading TV station back home and a legal translator for Sagesse, a renowned law college in the heart of the Lebanese capital. Marie speaks fluently Arabic, French, English and Spanish. She is fond of travelling, psychology, learning more and of the French literature.