Man accused of unlawful use of credit card

Aya Al Deeb, Hamza M. Sengendo, Staff Reporters

The Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal started trial of an Asian charged with forging documents and obtaining and using a bank credit card unlawfully.

According to the official records, the public prosecution charged the defendant and an accomplice with forging an identity card, a residence visa and a salary certificate allegedly issued by a government entity for submission to a bank operating in the country to obtain a credit card.

The Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant to three years in jail to be followed by deportation and decided to adjourn the case for a verdict to July 16.

When faced by the court with the forged documents, the defendant denied he knew anything about them but pointed out that the image in the ID card resembled someone he knew though the name was different. He asked the court for mercy by revoking its deportation order.

During the hearing, the defendant’s defense explained that banking procedures stipulate that the person must come to the bank’s premises in person with an original copy of the required documents and hand over a copy of the documents to the bank employee, who in turn matches them with the original. He pleaded that his client did not go to the bank and had nothing to do with the forged documents. He pointed out that the bank’s employee explained in the investigations that another unknown man came to the bank and gave her the papers, claiming that the original applicant asked him to submit the papers on his behalf.

The defence explained that the defendant was arrested after he had used the credit card, which he took from a friend of his, pleading that his client’s use of the card does not mean that it was him who took out and submitted the forged documents.

Recently, a salesman who posed as a television station manager to con a Dubai bank out of a Dhs140,000 loan was sentenced to one year in the dock. The Asian defendant, 43, committed forgery on the copy of a visa voucher. He noted he was working at a media zone authority as the manager of prominent news channel covering the Middle East and North Africa.