Dubai: A Dubai resident posed as a salesman of a famous watch store in Dubai and lured a man into paying Dh400,000 for expensive watches. The defendant is still at large.
According to Dubai Court of First Instance, the defendant had swindled the victim, who was obsessed with buying expensive watches, of Dh400,000. The defendant had told the victim about a discount on Rolex watches. He had sent pictures of expensive watches to the victim who then wired Dh400,000 to the defendant, believing that he was buying those watches. However, soon after the payment was made, the defendant disappeared.
Lawyer Bader Khamis, representing the victim, said that his client was passionate about collecting expensive watches and always visited major shopping centres in search of unique watches. “My client met the defendant at a famous watch store in a Dubai shopping mall. The defendant claimed he was an employee of that store and told the victim that there would be a 20 per cent discount on certain specific watches,” said Khamis.
The victim shared his phone number and email address with the defendant, believing him to be a salesman from the watch store.
“The defendant had emailed pictures of the watches and claimed that there was a discount on those. The victim then wired the money to a bank account that the defendant said belonged to the watch store,” added Khamis.
However, even after making the payment, the victim did not receive the watches and the defendant could not be contacted any more. The victim then reported the incident to Dubai Police.
Investigation revealed that the bank account belonged to a second defendant who was a roommate of the first defendant. The second defendant claimed that he did not know anything about the scam and that his roommate had told him that he was working as a property agent and needed a bank account to receive a certain amount of money. “The roommate agreed and the money was wired to his account.”
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Dubai Police have arrested the second defendant, but the first defendant is still at large.
Dubai Public Prosecution has charged the first defendant with impersonation and illegally obtaining Dh400,000. He has been sentenced to six months in jail and fined Dh400,000. The second defendant was fined Dh3,000.
