Expat poses as rich man in fancy car fraud, arrested

dubai — A car dealer has been arrested in Dubai for allegedly defrauding expatriates out of huge sums of money in luxury vehicle deals. The Arab expat, who pretended to be “a wealthy man from a European country”, charged up to three times the value of vehicles through “forgery, persuasion and deception”, the police said.

His alleged targets were expats with good jobs who were new to the UAE. He pretended to be wealthy by taking his potential targets to parties in luxury cars.

According to the Dubai Police, the suspect was arrested after six people filed complaints at Al Rashidiya Police Station. One complainant told the police that he paid Dh296,000 for a car that he never received.

In another case, a female employee of a school paid Dh153,000 to the dealer for a car that was valued at Dh42,000.

Another complainant said he met the suspect at a show in Dubai. The latter “convinced” him to sell his fancy car in exchange for a luxury car. He took the man’s car and sold it off, but did not give him the money or another vehicle.

The police also arrested three of his accomplices for helping him forge documents to hide the actual market value of the vehicles.

Col. Mohammed Al Marri, deputy head of Al Rashidiya police station, said: “The case was complicated because the victims had signed the papers for purchasing the vehicles without doing research on the real value of the vehicles.”

Major- General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, assistant commander- inchief for criminal investigation, advised residents to do their research before inking car deals.