Dubai visitor in Dh500,000 car con

NK, a 34- year-old Nigerian, who claimed to be selling and transporting cars to Kazakhstan via a website, allegedly defrauded about half a million dirhams out of a woman from the Central Asian country, being the value of two cars that she paid for but did not receive.

30-year-old VV, who had to come to UAE on a visit to sue the accused, complained to the police that in September 2012, she found a website that advertised that it was selling new and used cars. The website administrators’ names, pictures and telephone numbers were on the website. She and her husband contacted one of the staffers identified as LP who said the company is based in Dubai and had been exporting cars to Kazakhstan for many years.

After talking to LP, the couple agreed to buy a Mercedes S350 for $82,000 including customs fees and shipping. The couple transferred the money in instalments to a bank account number given to them by the exporters.  When they finished paying all the instalments, the exporters sent them a shipping certificate that carried the logo of Dubai Customs and the car’s ownership certificate.  The couple thought the car is on its way to them, so they agreed to buy another car -- a Land Cruiser – from the exporter for $50,800.

“When we did not receive the two cars on the agreed date, we contacted the manager who said his name was Eric. He told us that the cars were seized by the Iranian government and that $10,300 would have to be paid to clear the cars. Suspecting a fraud, I came to Dubai and lodged a complaint with the police,” testified the victim who gave the police the number of the bank account into which she had transferred the money.

Police found out that the website was bogus as they had no car showroom in Dubai. However, police arrested the accused red handed after he entered a bank’s branch in Sharjah and collected the money transferred by the victim. His real name was ‘NK’, not Eric as he had claimed earlier to the victim of the fraud.

He claimed that he had collected money transferred to him by a friend. However, investigations proved that the money that was in his hands had been transferred by the victim, according to the records.

Criminal Evidences reported that the Ducamz clearance certificates, car licence certificates and other RTA and Dubai Customs documents were all forged. The accused claimed that he had transferred the previous amounts to someone called Erickson on the request of his friend Eric against a commission.

The Prosecution noted that the accused had been prosecuted in 2010 and 2011 on similar complaints but they were not referred to the Court because of lack of sufficient evidence against him.

The Court will reconvene on November 3.