Fake prince punished over property scam

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A fraudster who posed as a prince and used counterfeit Dubai Courts documents to swindle cash from a female investor will spend one year behind bars.

The unemployed African man, 43, wore GCC attire –a cloak, ghutra, dishdasha and headband. He identified himself with a false name, gained her confidence and conned her out of Euro18, 900 (worth Dhs78, 000).

He teamed up with an unidentified fugitive accomplice to duplicate the stamp of a government body (a Dubai Courts stamp) with the aim of using it in the scam. They used it to forge a receipt attributed to the courts.

They also fixed it on a counterfeit property purchase agreement as proof it was attested by the courts. He presented the bogus documents to her. He will be deported after serving the term, the Criminal Court ruled.

On the record, an Emirati sergeant testified that the woman showed up at Al Barsha Police Station and complained that the defendant told her he managed a company and summoned her for a property deal.

They met at a hotel. She paid Euro18, 900. They later met at a brokering company to finalise the deal.

He asked her for $180, 000. She hesitated and later refused to pay after discovering he gave her fake documents.

Police caught him with a mobile he was using to keep in touch with her. He confessed and said he with the help of his countryman swindled her money and that he posed as a royal and handed her fake documents.

“The hotel’s cameras showed him taking her money,” said the sergeant. “It was not the first time the defendant swindled money from people.

“He had earlier tried to con an American family using the same method.”

During police interrogations he acknowledged he was the man in the surveillance footage and that he dressed like a GCC national to fool the victim. Dubai Courts confirmed all the documents he used were counterfeits.