Dubai Court upholds verdict in fraud case
- 05 Dec 2024
Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter
Dubai Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of the Court of First Instance, sentencing an Asian national to one year in jail, to be followed by deportation from the country, after serving his sentence and fining him Dhs39,900, on charges of colluding with another fugitive in forging a bank card, impersonating a policeman, and stealing the fine amount from a European woman’s account by deceiving her.
The case dates back to July 2022 when a European woman filed a report stating that she was a victim of fraud and an amount was stolen from her account.
She indicated that the suspect contacted her by phone, claiming to be a policeman from the Financial Investigations Department, and that he was tasked with updating the data of account holders residing in the United Arab Emirates.
The victim clarified that she initially refused to provide him with her data, but he sent her a card attributed to the police through the “WhatsApp” app, and asked her to provide him with the data of her bank card, ID, and passport, as well as the OTP password sent to her phone, under the pretext of verifying the sources of her money, otherwise, she would be subject to legal accountability.
She added that after he ended the call, she found that Dhs39,900 was transferred from her bank account to another, so she tried to communicate with the suspect, but he switched off his phone.
The victim reported the incident to the police and asked the bank to disable the card.
A police officer stated in the interrogations that a team from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) collected the evidence and identified the suspect and arrested him.
On being questioned, he confessed that he was the owner of the account used in the fraud operation.
He claimed that a compatriot opened the bank account electronically after providing him with pictures of his ID, passport, and residence, and that a debit card for the bank account was issued, which the suspect took and handed over to the fugitive, who used it to withdraw the transferred amounts.