Dubai Court of Appeal upholds punishment of man over fraudulently selling a mobile phone

Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by Dubai Court of First Instance fining an Arab Dhs1,000 for swindling the same amount of the fine from an employee in collaboration with another man.

The defendant defrauded the victim with an advertisement for selling a phone in installments posted on Instagram.

The case dated back to July last year when an Arab reported to the police that he had been defrauded. He explained that he communicated with the advertiser, who asked him to transfer Dhs1,000 as a down payment of the mobile phone price amounting to Dhs5,000, provided that the remaining amount would be paid in installments over four months.

The victim stated in the interrogations that the defendant promised him to send the mobile phone immediately after the down payment was received. However, after transferring the amount to the given bank account, he waited for the mobile phone but he never received it, he said.

He tried to communicate with the defendant but the latter blocked him and consequently he told the police accordingly, he added.

A policeman stated in the interrogations that a team of detectives managed to identify and subsequently arrest the bank account holder.

On interrogation, the defendant denied any connection to the fraud, pleading that an unknown man posted an advertisement on social media to hire an employee and that after communicating with the unknown man and submitting his CV, he received a job offer.

According to the defendant’s statement, he was asked to use his bank account to receive money and transfer the same to crypto-currency accounts in exchange for a commission.

The defendant confirmed that he carried out several operations without realizing the nature of the money or if it was illegal.