Trio forges documents of 38 cars, dupes dealers

dubai — A gang of three men allegedly managed to defraud two businessmen of Dh600,000 in a deal that involved the sale of 45 cars. According to public prosecution records, the two Armenians and an Iraqi had first forged the ownership certificate of a car by taking 38 copies of the original document and then changing the chassis number in each copy.

After using the forged documents, they managed to have the two complainants pay them Dh600,000, abusing their trust as they had previously handed them five ownership papers of five cars which were authentic.

The three defendants, including a clerk, a cook and a photographer, have all been charged in the Court of First Instance with forgery, use of forged document and fraud. The case dates back to September 2013 and was reported to Naif Police.

One of the complainants, a 51-year-old Syrian, said the two accused were linked to an auction company that sells cars. “They offered me and the other complainant a deal to buy 45 cars at the price of Dh600,000. After the deal was struck, the defendants handed us five ownership certificates with the original sale contracts. Those cars were later sold.

“After we paid the money, the accused handed us 40 copies of ownership certificates of other cars. We only found those copies were fake when we went to pick up the vehicles from the auction company,” the complainant told the prosecutor. “We learnt the copies were fake and the chassis number was changed in each document.”

The other complainant, a 36-year-old from Syria, gave a similar statement: “We had a deal to purchase 40 cars for Dh600,000 which we were to pay together. However, even though we received the ownership certificates we could only collect five cars. We were informed by the auction company that the other copies were all forged”. The trial has been adjourned to September 18.

mary@khaleejtimes.com