Conman jailed for three months for forging official pardon

The Palestinian man pretended he could secure an official pardon for an Egyptian man's sons, who had been jailed for using hashish.

DUBAI // A phony legal consultant who cheated a victim out of Dh25,000 by pretending to obtain pardons for his two jailed sons was sentenced to three months in prison on Monday.

Palestinian M A, 38, denied forging and using documents and fraudulently obtaining the money from the Egyptian man.

He forged cancellation papers for the arrest, deportation and imprisonment orders, as well as a release order and two other documents from Dubai Public Prosecution.

He used these documents to collect a Dh25,000 down payment from the victim, A A, 65.

The victim said he met the defendant at the Dubai Public Prosecution building and hired him to secure a pardon for his two sons who were serving four years in prison for using hashish.

The conman said all of the documents were given to him at the Abdul Qadir Bakheet law firm, for which he claimed to work.

He is also charged with forging an employment contract, business cards and a letter attributed to the law firm.

His victim said a few days after the meeting he called M A, but no one answered the mobile phone.

“I called the landline number on the business card and was informed that he did not work for them any more and that he had conned several other people, therefore I called the police,” he said.

M F, 29, a Palestinian who worked as a manager at Abdul Qadir Bakheet, said he fired the conman after they discovered that he did not have a law degree.

He said his law firm had received calls from people complaining that they had also been conned by M A, who will be deported once he has finished his sentence.