Fake Currency

A visitng Nigerian stood trial on Thursday at the the Criminal Court of First Instance on the charge of possessing fake currency. The 30-year-old defendant has been charged for possession of 32 counterfeit $100 bills on November 2 last year.

He pleaded not guilty saying he was not aware the money was fake.

The next hearing is slated for April 2.

An Indian accountant at an exchange centre in the Naif area said when he was on duty at 9.30am, the defendant approached the counter to change $14,200 into dirhams of which 32 $100 bills were counterfeit.

The accountant said that on verification, the notes were found to be fakes and the exchange company immediately called the police.

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Mall workers return Dh2.1m found in food court to owner

They were people in need of money, but when they found Dh2,100,000 in the food court of the shopping centre they worked for, they never thought twice before handing it over to the police.

Twenty-one-year-old Reddolla Das and 24-year-old Hamid Raza Abbasi have been working with Ajman City Centre for 11 and four months respectively, but they never had a day quite like April 16.

Reddolla came across a bag while cleaning tables at the mall’s food court. Without a second thought, he handed it over to Hamid, the security guard on duty, who then opened the bag and discovered the money: Dh400,000 in cash and Dh1,700,000 worth of blank cheques.

Hamid, as advised by the mall management, passed the bag on to the police who returned it to its relieved owner, a Pakistani national.

"We are all incredibly proud and grateful for Reddolla and Hamid’s honesty and humility," said Jassim Al Khaja, General Manager, Ajman City Centre. "We at Ajman City Centre endeavour to return every lost item found on our premises. The amount discovered is huge and some people might have been tempted by this."

Redolla and Hamid’s sincere act was recognised by the Ajman City Centre management, which rewarded them each with Dh1,500 in CityCash vouchers. Source

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Dubai Police nabs credit card forgery gang

The criminal investigation department at the Dubai Police has arrested a three-member Turkish gang who smuggled into the country a large number of forged credit cards.

The gang was using the cards for making purchases of expensive goods from various outlets of global brands at the shopping arcades in Dubai city.

The three culprits have been remanded in preparation for further investigation. (WAM)

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Dubai Police bust European ATM robbers

Dubai Police has busted a gang of Europeans who committed a series of cheating and fraud operations using fake credit cards.

A commercial bank alerted Dubai Police's department of criminal investigations on early February that unidentified persons used fake credit cards to withdraw money from its ATM at a shopping centre in Bur Dubai.

Acting upon these information, a team from the unit for combating economic crimes chalked out a plan and set ambushes which finally led them to arrest two members of the European ATMs robbers while approaching an ATM at Rafa commercial centre.

Police sleuths inspected the handbag of the prime suspect where they found 37 fake credit cards and AED 13,279. Some 40 fake credit cards and AED 12,200 were found with the second suspect.

Policemen also searched the robbers' hotel room in Bur Dubai where they stumbled upon 132 fake credit cards. Total funds seized with the first and second suspects reached AED 138,179 and AED 205,000 respectively. (WAM)

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Living in a car parked in mountainous area due to fear of arrest

A 57-year-old man is living in his car in the mountainous area of Al Munaei, Ras Al Khaimah, due to fear of being arrested for loan default.

"I am in debt of Dh480,000. I have taken a bank loan to get one of my sons married and the rest of the money I borrowed to renovate my house," said Khalifa Ahmad Humaid Saleh Al Dahmani, an Emirati resident of Dubai.

"I prefer death to detention. I have a bottle of poison kept ready to commit suicide before the police get closer to me," said Al Dahmani, a government employee who was sacked for long absence from work.

"I have suffered the heat of the summer, heavy rain and the cool mountainous weather and my own family refuse to help me," said the father of four working sons.

Al Dahmani does not know what the future holds for him. Source

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Police recover Dh1.2 mln stolen from a bank staff’s car

Dubai Police have recovered Dh1.2 million stolen from the car of a Dubai-based bank employee, it was stated yesterday by Brigadier Khamis Mattar Al Mazina, director of the General Department of Criminal Investigation of Dubai Police.
The theft was committed last Monday, when the black Toyota Camry car was parked in the parking area of Hamrain Shopping Centre, Al Mazina said. One of the windows of the car had been broken open by the thieves.

Two Arab employees of a bank, A.M and M.M, were asked to deposit an amount of Dh2.1 million in various ATM machines of the bank and they first went to the Hamrian Centre. The car belongs to A.M.
The two men told the CID team that they had parked the car at around 10.20am on Monday, after which they went to the ATM machine in the shopping centre to deposit Dh900,000. When they returned, they found one of the car windows broken open and the remaining Dh1,200,000, which they had kept in the car, gone.
The police managed to identify the thieves, who had fled to a neighbouring country. With the coordination of the security authorities of the neighbouring country, Dubai Police managed to arrest two Canadian citizens of Iraqi origin, A.G and J.G.
During their interrogation, they told the police that they had been shadowing the two bank officials right from the time they had taken the money from the bank, and they followed them right to the parking area. Source

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Fake currency racket busted in RAK

Police have busted a counterfeit currency racket and arrested three men of African nationalities.
Fake dollars and dirhams and the chemicals used in making fake currencies were also seized in an operation on Sunday.
The trio, based in Dubai, have been referred to the public prosecution.

Colonel Adnan Al Zaabi, head of the Preventive Security Section of RAK Police, said the suspects had been making counterfeit currencies using various chemicals.
They had exchanged counterfeit dollars and dirhams for genuine currencies on several occasions.
The arrest followed a tip-off by an undercover agent who met the suspects and struck a deal. The police party raided the hotel and arrested the suspects red-handed. Source

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Jailed for printing fake currency

Fujairah Misdemeanour Court has sentenced two men of African nationality to six months in jail, to be followed by deportation, on the charges of printing counterfeit currency.

The court also ordered the confiscation of the seized money and the tools used by them in printing fake currency

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Safe haven for fake currency operatives

Dubai’s emergence as a major transit hub for global counterfeit currency operatives — who use the port city as a safe sanctuary — has troublesome dimensions with the pumping of fake Indian currency notes into the country, according to security agencies.
Added to this are Pakistan-backed jihadist terrorist networks which often pitch in to fuel the fake Indian currency smuggling network on a global scale.

“The ‘secret cell structure’ of the terrorist groups can only work towards facilitating the currency smuggling machinery across countries,” said a senior intelligence official.
In fact, a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) report prepared sometime back had specifically mentioned that Mumbai-based operatives were placing ‘orders’ with their Dubai-based counterparts for a steady supply of fake Indian currency.
When asked whether Dubai was being increasingly used by international operatives as a transit route in ferrying fake Indian currency notes, an official with Dubai police’s General Department of Criminal Investigation told DNA on Sunday that although they were certain inputs in this regard, he would not like to comment on the matter.
The seizure of fake currency notes worth Rs10 lakh from the city on Friday will, in all likelihood, put revenue sleuths and members of other security agencies on the trail of the global operatives.

Source

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Trio accused of mugging bank customer

Three men have gone on trial accused of stealing dhs114,200 by accosting a man outside the bank from which he had just withdrawn the money.
One of the accused worked at Emirates International Bank and is alleged to have alerted two of his friends when the man arrived to withdraw the cash. “I had gone just 50 metres from the bank when I noticed two people chasing me. I was surprised when they tried to steal the money which was in an envelope,” the victim said.

He said he tried to fight off the men and even took off his shoes in an attempt to run faster. However, the men continued to pursue him, eventually catching up and forcing him to the ground.
“The money fell out on the ground and the two men started to collect the money. I was afraid and was asking for help” he said. After investigating the crime, police swooped to arrest the bank clerk who then led officers to his alleged accomplices.
Police are still hunting for a fourth individual who is believed to have worked with the clerk. All three deny the charges and the trial has been adjourned until later this month. Source

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Share sale scam

Three men managed to steal a cool dhs7.5 million by using a counterfeit a drivers' licence, the Dubai Court of First Instance heard yesterday.The gang, a 24-year-old UAE national, a 30-year-old Bahraini and a Syrian, allegedly produced the fake licence bearing the name of an Abu Dhabi businessman using machinery at their apartment.
In December last year, one of the men is said to have approached a brokerage firm in Dubai, using the fake document, saying the 550,000 shares the victim owned in Etisialat belonged to him.
He is then alleged to have instructed the brokers to sell the shares, which netted him and his accomplices dhs7.5 million. But an expert yesterday claimed the thief would have had to know a lot of information about the victim before he was able to convince the brokers he owned the shares.
"If you have the investor number (IN), then you can access the shares from the Clearing and Depository System," Jalal Taji Faruki of Dubai-based Al Mal Securities told 7DAYS. "He would have had to know a lot of information about the victim, including his IN to do this."
The scam came to light when the victim made a complaint at Muraqqabat police station, saying someone had sold his Etisalat shares, without his consent.
On him he had a photocopy of the drivers' licence used to convince the brokers of the shares' ownership. “The victim brought a photocopy of a driving licence that was supposed to be his, but the picture was different. He told us the person in the picture had sold his shares and taken the money,” a Lieutenant with Dubai Police said.
The police learned the UAE national accused was poised to leave the country and swooped to arrest him before he could escape. They found him with his share of the money and he then led officers to his accomplices. The Bahraini has pleaded guilty, while the other two deny all the charges. The trial has now been adjourned until next month.
Despite the scam, Faruki denied that security needed to be tightened in share dealing, saying the rules were there - it was just up to individual brokers to do their jobs properly. "It is possible that some brokers may not be that diligent, but normally there are always checks in place," he said. Source

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Dubai Customs foil the smuggling of forged money

In an operation showing their high readiness to protect the economy from various dangers, Dubai Customs Centre at Dubai International Airport foiled a daring attempt to smuggle a big amount of forged notes into the country.The Customs inspectors suspected an African passenger arriving from Sri Lanka. Upon the inspection of his suitcase, Customs officials found US$35,300 of forged notes, in addition to a quantity of black and white paper notes matching the size of the dollar bills. The suspect and the confiscated money were referred to the economic offences unit at the Public Prosecution.Dubai Customs confiscated earlier this month 250,000 Dollars of smuggled money from different currencies. Last year 13 cases of money smuggling attempts were recorded.Last June, Dubai Customs launched a comprehensive media campaign on combating counterfeit and piracy. The campaign will be topped with the hosting of the 4th Global Congress on Combating Counterfeit and Piracy, in February 2008, as part of Dubai Customs strategy to ensure the highest level of people safety and security for both the society and economy. Source

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Dubai police seize fake currency

Dubai police managed to seize a gang of seven people including one African woman , a European man and five African men circulating counterfeit currency notes .

The accused gang admitted that they had made fake currency notes of 223100 euro , 6000 US dollars and 3000 dirhams and had circulated them. Source

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42 percent of Dubai's central jail are debtors

According to police, 42 percent of the 3,000 inmates in Dubai's central jail are there because they did not repay bank loans.
The practice of jailing debtors more usual in 18th century England than in an ultramodern city (execupundit.com)
The practice of jailing debtors more usual in 18th century England than in an ultramodern city illustrates the downside of this Gulf city-state's frantic boom.
Many people here struggle to make ends meet in a place flush with oil cash and real-estate money, with ever-taller skyscrapers, stretch limos, spacious villas and opulent shopping malls. Surrounded by so much wealth, many succumb to the temptations of a lifestyle they cannot afford.
Dubai's lack of a central credit-check authority, coupled with its lack of a personal bankruptcy court system and banks' willingness to give consumer loans with virtually no collateral, have prompted even the police to complain that something must be done.
"If they cannot pay, we cannot release them," said Lt. Col. Abdulhalim Mohammed al Hashimi of the Dubai Central Prison.
The case of Mubarak, a 28-year-old Emirati, is typical. He was working 12-hour shifts as a crane operator in Dubai's port when he took his first bank loan to buy a car and furniture.
Even though he fell behind in the payments, he still managed to get two more loans from two different banks, each bigger than the one before.
He used one loan to pay off another but stopped making payments on the two others. After he ignored court summons, the bank deposited the blank check that he had presented as his sole collateral.
The check bounced and he was sentenced to three months in jail. He'll stay there longer if no one steps forward to pay the US $44,700 (euro33,250) debt.
In the United States, such a case would head to bankruptcy court, where the debtor would have a chance to sell off assets and restructure some debts to slowly pay them back.
But in Dubai, with no laws regulating defaults on personal borrowing, a person jailed for such an infraction is likely to remain there even when their sentence is over until a relative, charity group, wealthy businessman or even a member of the ruling family pays off the debt.
Police official Mohammed Murad complained that 60 percent of the police force is busy chasing deadbeats and chides banks for promoting rampant consumerism with easy cash. He contends banks would be more careful with loans if they had to share the cost of imprisoning debtors.
"Each one of them costs as much as someone in a five-star hotel," Murad said. Source

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