Abu Dhabi man told to return Dhs25,262 he fraudulently used through another person's credit card

The Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Cases Court obligated a person to return Dhs25,262 to another man and fined him Dhs3,000 after the former used the latter’s credit card to buy tickets to a UAE museum via the Google search engine.

After the amount had been deducted from his account, the victim learned that he was a victim of fraud and consequently filed a lawsuit against the defendant, who was convicted of embezzlement.

Under the lawsuit he filed, the plaintiff requesting the court to obligate the defendant to pay him Dhs51,000 as the value of the financial claim plus a compensation for the material and psychological harms he sustained and settle the incurred fees and expenses.

As evidence of his lawsuit, the plaintiff submitted photocopies of the referral decision from the Alternative Dispute Resolution Department and the verdict issued in a previous lawsuit in which the defendant was convicted in absentia and fined Dhs30,000.

The plaintiff pleaded that the defendant embezzled money from his credit card to buy tickets for a UAE museum, adding that he later received a one-time password and Dhs25,262 was deducted from his account with Abu Dhabi bank.

He then learned that he was a victim of fraud and consequently filed a lawsuit under which the defendant was convicted of embezzlement. The plaintiff stated that as he suffered material and moral harms in his personal life, given that he was the sole breadwinner for his family, was undergoing medical treatment and needed money to pay to his bank, he was prompted to file the present lawsuit.

The court explained that it was evident that the defendant was convicted of illegally using the data of the plaintiff’s credit card with the intention of embezzling a sum of money owned by the plaintiff through an information technology means, as stated in the papers.

Further investigations showed that the beneficiary of the purchases made via the plaintiff’s credit card was the defendant and that there was no relationship between the two parties.

As the defendant appeared before the court but did not provide evidence that he had returned the amount, the court ruled that he be obligated to return the amount claimed.

As far as the request for compensation is concerned, the court stated that the defendant had committed an error by unlawfully embezzling the amounts claimed, which resulted in material harm on the part of the plaintiff.

Taking into consideration the moral harms that the plaintiff sustained due to what the defendant did as embodied by grief and sorrow, the court estimated the compensation due to be paid by the defendant to the plaintiff at Dhs3,000.