Sharjah Police have arrested a man for fleeing with a car he had taken on a test drive.
The man posed as a customer and met an Emirati to buy his 2020 Land Cruiser. He requested to test drive the vehicle and issued the seller a fake cheque of Dh250,000 as collateral.
When he did not return after two hours and switched off his phone, the seller lodged a complaint with the police.
The police investigated the case and found that four other people had helped the man.
“Reporting the incident immediately helped foil the suspect’s plan to dispose of the car and also helped officers identify them quickly,” said Col Omar Ahmed Abu Al Zoud, director of Criminal Investigations Department at Sharjah Police.
“Our investigations revealed they met regularly at a certain location in Ras Al Khaimah and all were of different Arab nationalities.”
Officers launched a sting operation and arrested the men with the help of Ras Al Khaimah Police.
The car was recovered and the men were referred to the prosecutors.
Several chequebooks issued by different banks in the UAE and fake stamps from various commercial establishments were also confiscated during the sting.
Col Al Zoud urged people to always check the background of prospective buyers when trying to sell something to avoid becoming victims of fraud.
A look inside Dubai Police's command centre — in pictures
-
Officers field calls at the Dubai Police Command and Control Centre. All photos: Reuters -
Dubai Police responded to more than a million emergency calls in the first quarter of 2021, with the majority answered in less than 10 seconds. -
The average time for police patrols to reach emergency scenes was 2.47 minutes. -
Monitoring screens provide officers with a bird's eye view of the city streets. -
Dubai Police's non-emergency call centre number – 901 – received 170,323 calls in the first quarter of the year. -
Dubai Police receive more than five million calls on 999 every year – 75 per cent are non-urgent cases.
