DUBAI // Three men impersonated public prosecution officials in a bid to defraud a mother out of Dh29,000 after promising to release her son from jail and cancel a deportation order, a court heard. Two of the men were sentenced to two months in jail followed by deportation on June 28. The third man has not been found. A bidoon A I, 29, and a Briton Y M, 30, appeared before the Dubai Court of Appeals and denied charges of fraud, theft and swindling. The mother, Nashaba Khan, 50, filed a case at the Rashidiya police station on March 1 saying she was defrauded by men claiming to be from the Dubai Public Prosecutors office.
In her statement to police, the mother said one of her son's Indian friends approached her along with the Briton at her home in Al Garhoud. She said they informed her they were able to release her son from jail and cancel his deportation order. Mrs Khan's son was convicted on February 22 at the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours of illegally consuming alcoholic beverages and assault leading to injury. She told prosecutors the two men told her they worked with the public prosecutor in Dubai and a prosecutor they knew would release her son if she agreed to pay them Dh29,000.
Mrs Khan said she then met an Emirati man, described as having a dark complexion and a stocky build, but identified only as "Juma". She paid the man Dh10,000, records show. Police investigators tracked down Y M and A I after an informant revealed their location. They were arrested on April 24. During interrogation the Briton told investigators he went with AI, Juma and the mother to Dubai Courts and was handed the money. He said after an hour they returned to the mother and told her that her son would be released.
The plot was revealed to the mother when she went to inform her son the following day. "My son told me I had been conned and these men were the ones he was convicted of assaulting," she told investigators.
The Dubai Court of Appeal adjourned the case to August 29 when it will give its verdict.
amustafa@thenational.ae