Businessman jailed for Dhs873,000 scam

Hamza M. Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A businessman counterfeited documents he used to drain Dhs873, 000 from a housewife’s bank account. He will spend three years in the dock, a court ruled on Tuesday.

The Asian defendant, 29, with the help of fugitive accomplices forged an application requesting a telecom company to shift the ownership a phone number from the victim –an Indian woman, 49- to another person.

They forged her Emirates ID copy and attributed it to an identity authority. They forged a No Objection Letter and a cash transfer request attributed to her. They presented the letter to the company and request to the bank.

They managed to swindle the money with the help of an accomplice who impersonated her, prosecutors explained. The defendant denied. The Dubai Criminal Court convicted and jailed him for three years plus deportation.

In police and prosecution records, the woman complained that she returned from her homeland in Dec.2017 and tried to use her ATM card. She was stunned to realise there were no funds in the account. She went to the bank to find out.

She was handed a bank statement showing the account was emptied in October through a cash transfer to the account of a company. She went to the telecom company to activate her SIM card and review her pending bill.

“I was shocked. My SIM card had been changed to the name of a certain company. The telecom company employee showed me a handwritten application that I allegedly made, plus my identity documents’ copies,” she said.

Her photo on the copies was replaced with the photo of a fugitive and a bogus signature fixed on the application documents. “The bank’s employees told me the defendant was behind the swindle. He was the one who presented the transfer request and the letter attributed to me.”

In another recent case, a man impersonated a detective and raided two Dubai companies trying to extort money from their owners. He must serve three years behind bars, a jury ruled.