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Man loses 4WD to dud cheque

“I should never have accepted a cheque in the first place, but it was 8 pm in the evening and my ongoing deal to sell my four-wheel-drive for Dh80, 000 to UAE national Nasir A was almost finalised. I thought that it’s late, and this man has come all the way from Al Ain, so I settled for a cheque,” explained Shahid, who works as Team Leader — Call Centre, Training and Documentation, Systems, Technologies and Services Department in Al Futtaim Private Company LLC.

Shahid said that the car transfer papers were signed for a company named Blue Coast General Contracting Est. registered in Al Ain, and the deal was made by the brother of Nasir. “Later, I found out that it was a dud cheque and I could no longer get in touch with Mehdi as his mobile phone was not working,” he added.

“My aim is to create public awareness regarding this issue,” says Shahid. “After I found out that the cheque was bogus, I went to the police and lodged a complaint. After two weeks had passed, I found out that I was not supposed to lodge a complaint with that police station, but one in the jurisdiction of where the car was registered,” he said.

“If I had filed the complaint with the CID as soon as I knew about the cheque, it would have meant that the car could not have been registered anywhere else,” said Shahid. “The police did not guide me properly, otherwise this issue could have been sorted out earlier,” he says.

Shahid also adds that according to his information, the UAE national is still in Al Ain, but he has not been traced. “I took up the deal through a cheque because I thought that the person I am dealing with is a UAE national, therefore he cannot run away like an expatriate. Secondly, I do not trust cash deals because they might have counterfeit notes,” said Shahid.

In the UAE, fraud through cheques amounts to criminal cases against the person issuing it.

Shahid has the UAE national’s passport number and says that the car can be traced through the chassis number mentioned in the registration card. “If the person can be traced and contacted, I can even think about taking the car back after a check-up,” he says. “I guess I have learnt several lessons. But I just want my experience to serve as an example for others,” he adds.

Police sources at the Bur Dubai Police Station say that action has already been initiated on the case. “We have an internal system and a circular is issued to all police stations to let them know about the case,” said the source. “In this case, because registration of the car has already been done, therefore we can only take action with regard to the bogus cheque that has been issued. It is only a matter of time before the man is apprehended,” said the source.

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