Taxi drivers swindle Dhs500,000 from bank

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Three taxi drivers teamed up to pose as engineers from a transport authority and swindle Dhs495,750 from a bank, a jury heard on Tuesday.

The Asian defendant, 37, with the help of a fugitive colleague and countryman forged for themselves salary certificates, salary transfer letters and employment cards attributed to the authority in August 2018.

They also counterfeited copies of their visas and forged bank statements. They bilked a Dubai-based bank. In court, the defendant said, “I was broke and wanted a loan. A man told me he was working with the bank.

“He said he would process the transaction. In the course of events he sent me to collect the loan from the bank. I was not aware he counterfeited my documents.” The Dubai Criminal Court set June 25 for the verdict.

The authority’s Sudanese official said the trio were on probation. They disappeared in September 2018 before completing training. Meanwhile, the bank contacted to confirm the authenticity of their salary certificates.

“The bank provided us with copies of the certificates along with other documents the trio used to obtain loans. We discovered the employee numbers they used belonged to other employees and the stamps were fake.”

The bank’s Indian official said that between Aug.2 and Aug.29 the trio applied for personal loans and credit cards.

They submitted documents including their passport copies and bank statements attributed to a global bank.

Each one of the defendants and the countryman applied for a Dhs150,000 loan and a Dhs17,000 limit credit card. The colleague applied for a Dhs147,000 loan and a Dhs14,650 limit credit card. They withdrew the sums.

A fourth man who is at large also presented salary certificates to the bank to obtain the same. The management suspected them and contacted the authority about them and others presented by the trio. All were fake.