Credit card swindler gets 2nd time unlucky

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced to two years in prison a Nigerian who conned a mobile phone shop of Dh122,165 using a forged credit card and returned on the following day to continue swindling the shop by buying more phones.

The court also ordered YA, 32, to pay a fine of Dh1,000 and be deported after serving his jail term.

According to the records, the accused bought from a mobile phone shop in Satwa mobile phones valued at Dh22,165 using a Visa card.

As proof that he was the holder of the credit card, he presented to the shop owner a Ghanaian passport that carried his picture and the same name that was mentioned on the credit card.

The customer left the shop with the mobile phones he had purchased.

However, on the following day, the shop owner learnt from the issuing company that the card the mobile phone buyer used was forged.

“I informed the police and coordinated with them for arresting the buyer if he visited the shop again.  In fact, he came on the following day to buy more phones using the same credit card.

“However, as the card did not have enough credit to buy the phones he had picked, he excused himself, saying that he will call his family back home to ask them put more money into his account.When he got out of the shop, I called the police,” the shop owner told investigators.

Police searched the area and saw an African standing at the bus station in Satwa.

Asking him about his identity, the man presented a Ghanaian passport that carried his picture and the name of ‘Franklin Briana’.  He also submitted a Visa card that carried the same name and picture, policeman Ali Hassan told investigators.

The suspect was taken to the police station where it was proved that was not his real name via the unified identification system. The system showed that his name is YA and his nationality Nigerian.

The passport and the Visa card were proved to be forged. The accused admitted to using these documents for buying mobile phones for someone called ‘Tony’.

“I met a Cameroonian called Tony and asked him to find me a job. He asked me for photographs of mine and after giving them to him, he handed me the Ghanaian passport and Visa card that carried my pictures but not my name. He then asked me to buy mobile phones with the credit card. He promised to give me a commission for the mobiles that I should buy and hand over to him. I bought him mobile phones valued Dh22,165 from a shop using the forged card. On the following day, I was arrested in the Satwa bus station,” YA said.


 

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