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Man who swindled Emirati of Dh50,000 to be jailed for one year

Dubai - The Court of First Instance convicted him of charges of forgery, use of forged document and fraud and ordered his deportation.

An unemployed man managed to make an Emirati national lend him Dh50,000 after giving him a security cheque that proved later to be withdrawn on a closed account, has been sentenced to one year in jail.
The Court of First Instance convicted him of charges of forgery, use of forged document and fraud and ordered his deportation. Prosecutors accused the 29-year-old Pakistani that to further swindle the complainant he gave him a forged residence visa.
"In the mid of 2014, I received a phone call from the accused asking to see me. He came to me to the lobby of a hotel on Shaikh Zayed Road saying he needed to borrow Dh50,000," the 37-year-old complainant (an employee) said.
As the accused did not have a cheque book, he gave the complainant a cheque in another man's name.
"I told the defendant to acknowledge and sign a cheque's copy that he would be held liable in case the bank rejected the cheque".
When the complainant asked him for an ID, the accused gave him a residence visa copy bearing his personal details and photo.
"I then handed him Dh50,000 as he promised he would pay it back after one month. However, that did not happen," the complainant added. Few days later, the complainant went with an Indian businessman to meet the accused. "He was elusive in returning the sum. He then pretended he would go to bring the money."
The accused made the businessman wait from 11am to 5pm and he never showed up. A complaint was filed at Bur Dubai police station when the bank rejected the cheque as the account was closed.
The businessman testified that he was with the Emirati at the hotel lobby on August 25, 2014, when the accused handed the latter a security cheque worth Dh50,000. But they found that the name in which it was issued is different from the signature.
The defendant then signed another paper, acknowledging he would be responsible if things did not go well with the bank. A letter from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai said that the visa used by the defendant was fake.
The verdict may be appealed.