Businessman lands behind bars in telco forgery case

Ehab Atta and Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporters

The Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Gulf businessman to three years in prison to be followed by deportation after he was convicted of forgery and fraud for selling 954,797 shares in a telecommunications company worth around Dhs11 million without the knowledge of the original shareholder. The court also acquitted two others involved in the case.

According to the official records, the victim, a Gulf housewife, 72, testified that she had bought the shares around 20 years ago and used to receive profits regularly. As no more profits were received, the victim enquired about the reason from the mother company and was told that the shares had become the property of another person. The victim told the police accordingly and the suspect was arrested and referred to Dubai Public Prosecution with two other defendants who were acquitted later.

The defendant’s role was to forge the victim’s signature on a property transfer application form in order to facilitate the transfer of the shares.

ASIAN FRAUDSTERS

In its session held on Tuesday, the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal adjourned its sentence against an Asian who was charged with committing fraud by sending e-mails to individuals via WhatsApp that they won cash prizes. According to the official records, the public prosecution referred the defendant to the courts of law after a report had been received that Dhs50,000 was stolen from the bank account of a woman.

The defendant sent a message on WhatsApp to the victim claiming that he was working for a major local store, which conducted raffle draws on cash prizes, as a result of which she won Dhs50,000.

The defendant asked the victim to provide him with her bank card number, claiming that the number was needed to be matched with the card register that made the purchases from the store. The victim gave her account number and credit card number to the defendant, who was able to transfer amounts from her account to another accounts.