The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Ehab Atta, Staff Reporter

An Asian employee and a GCC businessman signed a deal with a company for the sale of 311 heavy equipment worth Dhs12 million, using a forged commercial licence issued by a government agency, and two cheques drawn on a bank, of whose value they did not pay.

For a year, the two suspects stole the equipment and temporised the payment, making excuses all the time.

At the end, the manager of the victim company discovered the signature on the two cheques were not identical and that they were forged.

Details of the incident date back to May 2014 when the victim’s company decided to sell 311 used heavy equipment. The first suspect reportedly rushed to the place claiming he was the agent of one of the companies owned by the second suspect. He presented forged official documents to prove this.

The sale was agreed on and the first suspect gave the manager a cheque with the decided value, but he asked not to encash the cheque for a period where it would be replaced by two other cheques.

After a while, the second suspect met the manager of the company, and claimed he was only the manager of the company, not its owner.

On the agreed date, the manager went to encash the cheques which were rejected because the signatures did not match.

He called the second suspect, who affirmed there was a mistake by the bank, and asked him not to inform the police while he looked for a solution with the bank.

When the manager tried to encash the second cheque, it was also rejected for the same reason, and he consequently informed the police. He then discovered he had been a victim of fraud.

Recently, the Dubai Criminal Court sentenced three Asians to three months in jail followed by deportation for exploiting the security gap in a government organisation’s website, and using their authority in transactions to renew a number of trade licences without payment of an estimated Dhs6 million fees.

After the report was was filed, Dubai Police investigated the case which took place on June 26.

A Deputy Executive Director of the Government and Legislative Sector at the defendants’ workplace, have witnessed how the accused were using the website’s security gap to renew trade licenses and changed its premium by forging online documents, in addition to default of Dhs6 million.

The incident was discovered after the concerned department carried a check on issued trade licences, and an immediate legal action was taken against the defendants.