14 get sentences in forgery case

The Criminal Court of Abu Dhabi pronounced sentences in a case in which 19 people were charged in a case involving forged commercial licences and illegally providing services to loan applicants. The court sentenced the first suspect to a year in jail for forging documents and fined him Dhs50,000 for employing a worker not sponsored by him. The second suspect was sentenced to 8 months to be followed by deportation on charges of forging documents and embezzling public money, besides staying illegally in the country and working for another sponsor. Whereas suspects number three to seven were sentenced to six months each in prison, suspects five, six and seven are to be deported after serving their terms, the court ordered. Meanwhile, suspects number eight to fourteen were issued suspended sentences of six months each with the 14th suspect ordered to be later deported. The court ordered the acquittal of suspects number 15 to 19. Investigations revealed that the first suspect had forged commercial licences, which were later seized from his private office. On being interrogated, the second suspect confessed that he was employed by the first suspect to fetch the documents that were to be forged. After effecting the forgeries, the first suspect passed on the fake licences to his clients, also named suspects in the case, for the purpose of obtaining bank loans. The officer in charge of the case testified that suspects number eight to 14 had submitted the fake licences to the bank as part of loan application procedures. However, they were not aware that the licences had been forged, the officer testified, adding that these loan applicants were in direct contact with the first suspect and at times with the second one through 4 phone numbers, three of them owned by the suspect number four. The role of suspects number three and four was to circulate their numbers among bank’s employees and offering their services to engineer fake commercial licences against offers of certain sums of money. A bank employee, meanwhile, testified that the bank’s staff used to recommend to loan applicants, the services of a man — known to them only by his name and mobile number — for getting their commercial licences for loans in excess of Dhs250,000. He added that this person was not on the bank’s payroll and that he had not seen him before. Later, investigations revealed that this person was the first suspect.