Dubai - In another incident, the trio tried to defraud a man of Dh75,000 by e-mail by pretending to work for a realty firm and that his rent was due for payment.
Published: Thu 27 Aug 2020, 3:03 PM
Last updated: Thu 27 Aug 2020, 5:09 PM
An expat was arrested by the Dubai Police while trying to encash a cheque at a bank, using another man's Emirates ID card, the Dubai Court of First Instance heard on Thursday.
The expat, a 38-year-old jobless African, confessed during the public prosecution investigation that he had been given the ID card by a 36-year-old accomplice, also an African, to encash cheques and was to get 1 per cent of the value of every cheque.
On June 2, he went to a bank branch at a mall to collect a cheque and was then caught.
He admitted to interrogators that he had done that before and encashed a total of Dh350,000 on three different occasions. During the three times, he used the Emirates ID card that belonged to an African accomplice (a fugitive), and which was given to him by his 36-year-old co-accused, a sales supervisor. He told the investigators that he had given the amounts to that accomplice.
The three defendants are accused of a Dh350,000 scam as they fraudulently talked (unknown) victims into transferring the amounts to bank accounts, belonging to the runaway defendant, at the same bank.
In another incident, the trio tried to defraud an Arab man of Dh75,000 by e-mail by pretending to work for a realty firm and that his rent was due for payment. They sent him the bank account number of the fugitive who then claimed to be representing the real estate company. However, they were exposed before they could obtain the amount.
The three men are facing the charges of using others' identification document, criminal complicity in the unlawful use of others' identification document, fraud and attempted fraud.
Two of them are detained. The fugitive is standing trial in absentia.
The case dates back to February 6 and was reported at Al Barsha police station.
A police lieutenant said that a bank employee called the police after the defendant (the 38-year-old) went to withdraw a cheque. "The bank employee called the police as she suspected that the ID card he presented was not his own. We arrested him and seized the cheque and the ID card."
The lieutenant told the public prosecution investigator that the whole scam was planned and run by the other accused (who is also detained).
According to the forensics department report, the ID card used by the defendants is authentic.
The seized ID card and cheque have been enclosed to the case file.
The trial has been postponed to September 24.
mary@khaleejtimes.com
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