• Home
• /
• UAE
• /
• Crime

Court revokes businessman's jail term, issues fine for Dh5m bad cheque

Dubai - The bank had received the Dh5 million security cheque against a loan the defendant obtained from them.

An Iranian businessman has had his two-year jail term recently overturned by the Court of Appeals for issuing a bad cheque worth Dh5 million to a bank.
The appellate court ordered the 47-year-old to pay a Dh10,000 fine instead.
The complaint was filed by a bank branch in Al Muraqqabat in March 2013. The bank had received the Dh5 million security cheque against a loan the defendant obtained from them.
"My client defaulted on payment of a loan instalment for one month only and the bank did not try to give him a chance to pay. They opted to collect the security cheque even though my client had given them a land in mortgage," argued lawyer Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi Office for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy.
"My client settled Dh1,585,000. The dispute was also over the interest the bank was claiming. My client tried to reach a settlement with them but they did not want to," the advocate said.
The Court of Misdemeanours had sentenced the defendant to two years in jail in August 2014. The accused confessed in court to the charge of issuing a bad cheque.
"The defendant obtained a loan from our bank. He settled part of it and the amount remaining was Dh4 million. He offered a plot of land but it was not sufficient to cover what he owed to the bank," a bank representative claimed before the court.
Even though the defendant claimed he did not have any criminal intention and that it was a security cheque, the court was not convinced; the court deemed those claims do not alter the fact that the cheque was issued by the defendant who must have been aware there was no sufficient balance in his account.
The defendant was found to be compliant with the completion of the payment of the remaining amount he owed to the bank.
mary@khaleejtimes.com