Friend steals over Dh500,000 from Dubai resident’s account
dubai — A Dubai resident has embezzled more than half a million dirhams from his friend’s account while he was outside the country, an official has said.
Hashim Salem, director of expert management settlement of disputes section at the Dubai Ruler’s Court, told an Arabic newspaper that the accused transferred Dh5,80,000 from his friend’s different accounts in 14 days.
The police received a complaint from a man that one of his friends who was sharing his flat transferred his money without his knowledge. He was shocked to see after returning from a trip that the money in his accounts were transferred to a number of accounts of persons whom he doesn’t know. His friend was using his personal computer, he told the Dubai Criminal Court. His friend denied the charges.
After initial investigation, the case was referred by the court to the expertise management and the settlement of disputes panel of the Ruler’s Court, which commissioned one of its experts to further investigate the case and submit a report to the court.
The investigation showed that all the transactions were made while the complainant was abroad and he did not receive any notification from the bank regarding these transactions. The expert conducted a detailed study of the bank statements to define the role of the defendant.
Hashim Salem said the case looked very complicated initially, because of the professional way the money was withdrawn. However, the official who handled the case had expertise in financial and accounting matters and had knowledge of electronic money handling. The expert held several meetings with the parties to discuss the documents and took statements from witnesses.
The official said an error committed by the accused helped the expert to find out his crime. The accused contacted a bank to conduct a transaction on a credit card belonged to the complainant. But he did a mistake on the pin and then disconnected the line. However, the call was recorded by the bank and the authorities confirmed that the accused was trying to impersonate the complainant.
Hashim Salem stressed that the bank customers who do electronic transactions should be careful when conducting transactions, and to keep their account information, such as user name and PIN number, confidentially. They should also keep an eye on the electronic transactions on their accounts on a regular basis.