Man accused of stealing $5M from a company owner

dubai — A businessman stood trial in a court accused of defrauding a company owner of Dh1.2 million after falsely claiming that the police had seized $4.9 million belonging to him and he needed to pay some administrative fees to take back his money.

To get the victim into believing his claims, the 34-year-old Pakistani businessman showed the complainant, a Briton, some forged documents which he falsely attributed to the police and the public prosecution.

He faced charges of forgery, fraud, breach of trust, embezzlement and criminal complicity in impersonation of police officers.

“In November last year, I was asked by the complainant to collect $4.9 million from the accused. I went to the latter’s office in the Business Village in Dubai. He told me there was $2.7 million in the company and he needed to collect the rest from a customer. He drove towards the airport and later parked outside a building. He came back carrying a suitcase which he said contained the money,” a British assistant manager told the prosecutor.

“The accused later went to a café in a shopping centre in Deira where he met another man for about one hour and a half. They kept talking in a language I did not understand. On the road back to the company, a car stopped us and three men stepped out. They claimed to us that they were CID officers and they took the suitcase. They also took the accused with them. He told me to go back to the hotel and he would take care of the matter.”

The assistant manager added : “The following day, the accused told me by phone that the money was seized by the police as one of the persons who usually converts currency for us did not hold a business licence. He later showed us some documents to prove his claims. But those papers turned out to be forged”.

The complaint was filed at Al Muraqqabat police station.