Man uses fake bank letter to embezzle Dhs240,000

Ehab Atta, Mahmoud Muhsen, Staff Reporters

A 55-year-old Arab director forged an official document (bank letter of guarantee) to seize Dhs240,000 he received as a down payment to build a villa for a Khaleeji engineer’s wife.

The plaintiff stated that the defendant’s company was awarded a contract through a tender to construct a villa for his wife. The defendant received Dhs240,000 as a down payment to start the construction, provided he gave the plaintiff a bank letter of guarantee, which he did. However, the plaintiff later discovered the letter was fake.

The defendant denied the forgery and admitted that he had tried to get the letter from a bank employee, who informed him that he could get a letter of guarantee in return for a payment of 10 per cent of the value of the guarantee, i.e Dhs24,000.

The defendant paid the employee the required sum and got the letter, which he presented to the plaintiff, who found it to be fake. The defendant denied it and insisted that the letter is 100 per cent real. In another case, the Sharjah Criminal Court heard a case in which two Asians were charged with breaking the doors of a furniture store and stealing items belonging to its owner.

According to the official records, the storeowner, an Arab, testified before the court that the defendants broke three gates of his store to enter it. They then stole a laptop and two mobile phones. He further noted that he was able to recognise the two thieves through surveillance cameras installed in the store.

An intensive investigation showed the duo had been involved in other thefts as well.

The defendants denied the charges against them by the court, saying they had nothing to do with the theft.

The court adjourned the hearing to Sept 8 to hear the testimonies of other witnesses. Recently, the Dubai Criminal Court sentenced three Asians to three years in jail in an embezzlement case. They were also slapped with a fine of Dhs13 million in total, with Dhs6.5 million to the first convict, Dhs2.3 million to the second, and Dhs4.2 million to the third. Furthermore, two companies involved in the case were also fined Dhs50,000, according to the Court’s verdict.