Arab charged with fraudulent claims on traffic fines

Mahmoud Muhsen, Staff Reporter

The Sharjah Criminal Court adjourned a case in which an Arab was charged with defrauding others by abusing his powers and giving them the wrong impression of his ability to reduce their traffic fines by 50 per cent.

One of the victims told the court that the defendant who was in a policeman’s uniform stopped him in an area in Sharjah in May and asked him to present his driving licence and car registration card.

The victim stated that because he was unemployed and did not have enough money, he could not renew his car registration and fines of around Dhs16,000 were incurred. The victim added that the defendant kept his driving licence and registration card with him but did not issue a fine against him.

Later, the defendant phoned the victim and told him that he could reduce the incurred fines by 50 per cent.  The defendant asked the victim to divide the fines into several parts, the first was Dhs4,300. The victim gave the amount to the defendant who returned the driving licence and car registration card to the victim.

The defendant called again and asked for the second payment which would bring to Dhs8,000 the amount given to the defendant. One month after supposedly paying the incurred fines, the victim tried to check the fines to be surprised that they were the same. He called the police accordingly. 

A witness in the investigation team stated that reports were received from 4 people that an employee was abusing his powers and giving offenders that he was able to reduce fines by 50 per cent after stopping them and subsequently communicating with them by phone.

The witness pointed out that the defendant was arrested and confessed during the interrogations that he had abused his powers and taken amounts from 4 people for himself.

Faced by the court, the defendant confessed to having taken Dhs16,000 from people for having employment visas issued for them and not for reducing and paying their fines. Denying the testimony of the witness, the defendant noted that his confession was coerced. The court ordered that the case be adjourned to September 29 to hear the defence.