Man offers to buy business class air ticket, defrauds another of Dhs13,000 in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Cases Court has ordered a person to return Dhs13,000 plus a compensation of Dhs5,000 to another after misleading him into believing he could book a business-class ticket from the UAE to another country at a competitive price.

In good faith, the victim transferred the money to the defendant’s account, but the defendant then pocketed the money, failed to fulfill the agreement and procrastinated when asked to return the amount.

The plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the defendant in which he requested that he be obligated to pay Dhs13,000 plus a compensation of Dhs10,000, the legal interest on the amounts required to be paid and the legal fees and expenses incurred by the lawsuit.

The plaintiff pleaded that the defendant made him believe that he could book a business class ticket from the UAE to another country at a competitive price and consequently he, in good faith, transferred the amount to his account.

The defendant, however, pocketed the money, failed to fulfill the agreement and procrastinated when asked to return the money, he added, noting that these actions caused him financial harm, which prompted him to file this lawsuit with the aforementioned requests.

The court explained that it is legally stipulated in articles 304 and 308 of the civil proceedings law that 1) The hand that has taken is liable until it gives it back. 2) The one who extorts the property of another shall have to restore it back in the same condition in which it was at the time of extortion, and at the same place where extortion occurred.

It is proven from the papers that the defendant pocketed the plaintiff’s money, which was transferred to him as shown in the account statement, the court said. Therefore, the court will build on that by obligating the defendant to pay Dhs13,000to the plaintiff, it added.

The court stated that as the plaintiff requested to be compensated for the harms that befell him and based on the causal relationship between the error and the harm, the court hereby estimated the compensation that the plaintiff deserves for such harms at Dhs5,000.