Ailing expat trapped in RAK home following legal troubles

Ailing Australian, 73, struggles to finance court battle to clear his name, which will allow him to retire and return home.

Jerry Dowling, 73, is in ill health and trying to raise money to settle legal issues and return home. Emmanuel Samoglou / The National

RAS AL KHAIMAH // An Australian man in ill health said he was under house arrest and trapped by the UAE’s legal system, struggling with day-to-day expenses and unable to afford the cost of an appeal he hoped would lead to his freedom.

Jerry Dowling, 73, said he had not been allowed to venture far from his home in Ras Al Khaimah since he was arrested for writing dishonoured cheques – which he claimed came about only after he became a victim of fraud himself.

With little financial help from his family, he is trying to raise money online so he can prove his innocence in court and return to Australia to retire. His passport remains with the authorities.

After working for almost a decade in the UAE’s industrial glass industry, Mr Dowling said he was first arrested by authorities in 2013 for a series of bad cheques drawn on his now-defunct company’s accounts – an offence that resulted in him spending about four months in prisons in RAK, Dubai and Sharjah.

But he said a former employee and once trusted business associate was to blame.

“I employed him 10 years ago, from Saudi Arabia, he had no money, he had nothing, I helped him. He was like a long-lost son,” he said. “I’m not the criminal, I’m the victim. I’m no idiot, and yet I was taken in by this guy because of trust.”

Making his situation worse, he said his ordeal nearly turned fatal when, upon his release from jail last year, he was admitted to RAK’s Saif bin Ghobash Hospital where he spent three weeks in intensive care with pneumonia and pleurisy, which he said were caused by adverse conditions in jail.

He was allowed to go home after a medical report stated he should not be kept in confined spaces and required access to regular medical attention.

Recently, he said he had also been told he has deep vein thrombosis in both legs.

Musa Shahin, a former business colleague from Jordan, is one of the few people Mr Dowling said he relied on.

“Jerry is my best friend,” Mr Shahin said. “We are very stressed. Every two days I take him to test his blood. Monthly we are paying Dh2,000. Don’t even ask about food.”

In 2012, Mr Dowling brought along the employee when he formed a RAK-based company called Glass Armour LLC, which made bulletproof glass for the armoured car industry. By mid-2013, he had travelled to Europe to drum up new business, signing over power of attorney and leaving several signed blank cheques with the employee.

On his return he was arrested at the airport after the cheques started to bounce – he claims the employee used them to siphon more than Dh5 million out of the business and into his own pockets.

With the help of his wife Maureen, Mr Dowling settled the debts and a court case was launched against the employee, alleging breach of trust and fraud. But even after paying Dh100,000 in legal fees, he said he was lost in a flawed case.

In May last year, while waiting for the court’s decision, he said he was arrested after another cheque bounced – this one made out by the employee to himself in the amount of Dh417,000 — and jailed before ending up in intensive care.

Mr Dowling now wants to reopen the case against the employee but said he could not afford day-to-day living costs, let alone the legal expenses.

“It’s hell, you have to go around with a begging bowl to your friends and mates,” he said. “We have no assets left, the cash is all gone.”

A crowdfunding campaign started earlier this year by his family raised about Dh14,000, well short of its Dh260,000 goal.

A spokesman with the Australian government said the Australian consulate in Dubai had provided Mr Dowling with legal assistance, paid him visits in jail and at his home, and had contacted local authorities on his behalf.

Australian Fares Kassem, who owns general contracting businesses in RAK and UAQ, said he had been helping his friend with bills and arranges to have fruit and vegetables delivered to his home.

“This is what happens to honest people when they trust others,” he said.

“They don’t care what happens to the other party, whether he dies, lives, or suffers.

“They just want to make money, and not from hard work, from crooked ways.”