Picture used for illustrative purposes only.

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court sentenced a gang of 11 people to one year to ten years to be followed by deportation on fraud charges. It also ordered the forged official documents used in their crimes to be confiscated.

The gang was specialised in defrauding insurance companies by buying vehicles and insuring them at a higher than their real price and deliberately fabricating traffic accidents that led the vehicles to be destroyed and written off and hence claiming for compensation.

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According to the investigations conducted by the Abu Dhabi Finance Public Prosecution, the defendants used to defraud insurance companies by fabricating traffic accidents to get the due compensation. One of the defendants bought vehicles and registered the same in his name and in the names of other people who agreed to take part in his plan. Later, they were involved in deliberate traffic accidents so that they could deceive the insurance companies and get indemnification for the damaged vehicles.

Following intensive investigations and based on the defendants' testimonies, it was clear to the court that the defendants received indemnification illegally from insurance companies. The fabricated traffic accidents caused the vehicles involved to be no longer roadworthy and the files related to these vehicles to be cancelled from the traffic records. Accordingly, the person in whose name the vehicle was registered would get the due compensation and would share the amount with the real owner of all the vehicles used in these accidents.

Last year, the Dubai Criminal Court sentenced a gang of three Asians, one of whom is a fugitive, to one year in jail each, after they were convicted of forging official electronic documents, breach of trust, seizing a vehicle and exporting it to an Arab country with the forged documents.

The court also fined the main suspect Dhs220,000 and the other two Dhs150,000. All of them will be deported after serving the term.