The convinced them about a bogus investment project.

A bank manager and an investor have both been convicted by a Dubai court on Monday on charges of fraud and forgery after they swindled two bank customers of $2 million (Dh7.3 million).



The court heard how the 35-year-old Emirati man and the 44-year-old Canadian investor, a runaway, managed to convince the two complainants to transfer $2m to the account of a Ras Al Khaimah Free Zone-based company, owned by the Canadian.



The two falsely claimed that the bank had approved the security deposits for an investment project.



The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the banker to a three-month jail term and his accomplice, who was standing trial in absentia, to five years in jail and deportation.



The complaint was filed in January at Bur Dubai police station.



According to public prosecution records, the two defendants faked the seal of a bank and forged a letter that they attributed to the same bank. They then sent it to the two complainants by an express post service to make them believe that a $4m deposit was approved by the bank towards securing the investment.



A bank expert told the prosecutor he was appointed by the Dubai Courts to prepare an audit report after the two victims filed a civil lawsuit, demanding the bank to pay $4m.



"We found that the Canadian defendant's company does not have any account at the bank and that the bank did not approve any security deposits. The mail, sent in this regard by an express post branch in Deira, was sent by the Emirati defendant. The latter further claimed to the two victims that he was a bank branch manager and that they approved the security deposits as the company owned by the investor had an account with them, which was not true."



The ruling remains subject to appeal.



mary@khaleejtimes.com