Asian jailed for possessing fake currency

Ehab Atta/ Mahmoud Muhsen, Staff Reporters

The Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced an Asian to 6 months in jail to be followed by deportation after being convicted of possessing counterfeit currency of $57,000 in a bag in his apartment.

The fake money was discovered by a Dubai Police corporal who came to the apartment for evacuation based on a court order.

According to his testimony, the corporal was on duty implementing a court order issued by Dubai Courts to vacate an apartment located in Muhaisnah.

He was accompanied by a court officer.

After knocking on the door and receiving no reply, the court officer ordered that the door be broken.

After entering the apartment, the corporal and court officer found some movables belonging to the owner of the apartment, including a table on which foreign banknotes of $100 denominations were placed, which were suspected to be fake.

The corporal told the story to his immediate superior, who asked him to take the necessary measures.

He called the competent department accordingly and police agents from Al Qusais Police Station came to the apartment.

They found a medium-sized bag containing 577 counterfeit banknotes of $100 denominations.

Separately, the Sharjah Criminal Court heard a case in which 4 Asians were charged with stealing and illegally selling electric cables.

According to the official records, three of the defendants stole electric cables from the worksite of a company in Al Saja’a Industrial Area and sold them to the fourth defendant.

After the stolen electric cables had been seized, the defendants ran away from the police as soon as they were arrested.

The defendants, however, were arrested later and referred to the Public Prosecution and the courts of law.

Faced with the charges levelled against him, the defendants confessed to the theft, pleading that they ran away from the police out of fear and not due to resistance.

The fourth defendant said he was not involved in stealing the electric cables but bought the stolen items from them for Dhs17,000 before buying the same for Dhs40,000.

He pointed out that he did not receive a sales invoice from the defendants and did not know the electric cables had been stolen.