African jailed for possessing fake dollars

DUBAI: The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced an African woman to three months in prison and fined her Dhs200,000, in addition to the value of the purchases, and deported her from the country ater serving the sentence on charges of possessing counterfeit dollars and duping an Asian seller.

The events of the case took place in a store that sells electronics and accessories, when the convict and another of her nationality came to enquire about the value of some of the displayed phones, then they let the store, and ater two hours the convict and the other person returned to pay for two phones, three watches, a men’s perfume, and another woman in US dollars.

According to the statement of the amount in the case papers, the convict paid $1,000 for the value of the purchases, but the seller was surprised when exchanging the currency from a money exchange company that the dollars were fake, so he informed the competent authorities.

According to the Dubai Police forensic report and the examination of the store’s cameras, the convict and her companion were identified and the seller was defrauded with counterfeit foreign dollar bills of 100 dollars.

More recently, a 43-year-old African man was arrested and referred to Criminal Court for possessing and atempting to sell fake $12,000 in Dubai.

The incident dates back to last November, when police were tipped off about the defendant’s possession of counterfeit money and his intention of selling it.

An undercover police officer was assigned to contact the defendant and make a deal to buy the counterfeit currency for Dhs15,000.

The defendant was ambushed and arrested while delivering the $12,000.

During investigations, the defendant admited to receiving the counterfeit money from another person of the same nationality, and aimed to sell it for a good amount of money.

The defendant was prosecuted and referred to Criminal Court on forgery charges, and a long period of jail-term might expected for him.