Fake tourist firm agent who duped 21 expats arrested

The security teams at the Dhaid Police Station arrested an Asian man over the involvement in fraud crimes.

This came after 21 people had filed complaints with the police station indicating that one person working for a tourist company in Al Dhaid City had deluded them that he had flight offers at the lowest and cheapest prices, but he cheated them and swindled their money.

Those people discovered the trick after they packed their bags in preparation to travel to their homelands to spend their annual vacations. They found no flight bookings under their names in the airlines that they would travel through, and knew that they were victims of fraud.

Accordingly, the tasked security team began to search for the suspect, who disappeared completely after he seized the victims' money, changed his residence and switched off his phone.

They were able within 48 hours to locate the suspect and arrested him. He confessed to the crime justifying that he fell behind debts of more than Dhs100,000, so had to resort to this method in an attempt to pay his debts.

He stated that he was actually making round reservations with airlines, but was not paying, thus the tickets were not confirmed and declined.
Based on confessions of the accused, he was detained and referred to the Public Prosecution.

Colonel Hamad Abdullah Al Rayami, Acting Director of Central Region Police, stressed the importance of dealing with legitimate travel agencies to avoid fraud and scams.