Visitor jailed, fined for circulating fake $100 bills

Dubai — A Nigerian visitor, who went on a shopping spree with fake $100 bills, has been sentenced to six months in jail.

The 25-year-old, who was charged with circulation of fake currency and fraud in two criminal cases at least, has also been ordered by the Court of First Instance to pay a fine of Dh2,000 and to be deported after serving his term in prison.

He confessed during interrogation that he intentionally picked cheap items to buy so that he could get larger amounts in dirhams. He is believed to have possessed fake $100 bills and tried to do his shopping with the fake money and get his change in Dirhams. In one instance, he bought a box of colour pens and a gadget and collected Dh308 from the saleswoman.

The Filipina saleswoman said the accused paid $100 when buying a gadget and a box of pens from her shop located in a shopping centre at Al Rafaa, and she gave the change in Dirhams.

“When I went to convert the $100 bill at an exchange outlet, I was told it was fake,” she said in the investigation. A police sergeant said they tracked the accused after receiving several complaints from many shops in Bur Dubai that an African national had been buying items and paying fake $ 100 bills.

“We checked the surveillance footage of the shop and saw the defendant,” said the sergeant.

When the accused went to Al Rafaa police station on July 24 last year, to recover his passport which had been seized in connection with a separate similar criminal case, he was apprehended.

He admitted in the interrogation that he made his purchases with fake $100 bills.

“He even confessed that he intentionally picked up cheap items to buy so that he could get larger amounts in Dirhams.”

In a separate criminal case, which is also being heard by the same court, the visitor is accused of buying a wallet worth Dh79 and getting Dh286, in change, after he paid with a fake $100 bill. It also happened on June 24, last year, at a shop in the same shopping centre. The verdict has been appealed.

mary@khaleejtimes.com