Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A businessman who counterfeited documents to drain Dhs873,000 from a housewife’s bank account must see out his three-year jail term, a jury ruled.

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

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

With the help of a female accomplice who impersonated her, the gang accessed her bank account and swindled the money. The defendant denied. The Dubai Criminal Court convicted and jailed him for three years.

It ordered he be deported after the term. He insisted he was innocent and sought to challenge the ruling at the Appeals Court. However, the Appeals Court’s jury found him guilty and ordered him to serve the punishment.  In police and prosecution records, the woman revealed she returned from her homeland in Dec.2017 and tried to withdraw cash using her ATM card. She was stunned to realise there were no funds in her account.

She headed to the bank and asked for a statement. It showed 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. She also asked to review her pending bill. “I was shocked. My SIM card had been changed to the name of a certain company. A female telco employee showed me a handwritten application I allegedly made.

“She also showed me copies of my identity documents,” she said, adding that her photo on the copies had been replaced with the photo of a fugitive. “The signature on the application documents is not mine. The bank’s employees told me the defendant was behind the swindle. He had presented the transfer request and a power of attorney letter claiming I authorised him to conduct the money transfer.”