UAE: Owner convicted of real estate fraud.

The court buildings in Dubai. Image credit: Gulf News Archives

Dubai:

A Dubai court has sentenced a property owner to three months in prison and fined him AED673,000 for defrauding UAE investors through fictitious real estate deals.

Records:

businessman set up several of his company's offices in different UAE emirates and ran social media advertising campaigns for a large residential project outside the UAE. He sold the purported real estate units to more than 600 investors before the scam came to light.

The Dubai Public Prosecution charged the owner and his advertising manager with fraud. The Dubai Court of Appeal later overturned the verdict and theacquitted the manager of the charges but declared the owner guilty of fraud.

Neither the real estate company had a permit to build real estate projects outside the country, nor did it have a license from the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Agency to collect monthly fees from customers in the UAE.

Dubai petty crime court found the owner and manager guilty.

False promise

One of the victims said he signed a contract to buy the property for Dh648,799 and paid almost Dh309,000. He was promised that the apartment would be ready in three months.

The letter from the country's competent authority, however, indicated that the building permit wasof the project was not received.

"Just an employee "

A lawyer Bader Kamis, who represented the manager in the trial, appealed the verdict, citing lack of evidence. He argued that the defendant was merely an employee and did not collect money from the victims.

"My client works as an advertising manager, and his role is limited to marketing for the owner according to his job duties. He did not receive the injured person's money [in his individual capacity]," Kamis argued before thejudges.