Receptionist 'murdered man after writing him dud cheques'

Woman tried to flee the country after stabbing a man to death, court hears.

DUBAI // A female receptionist murdered a man after writing him two dud cheques totalling Dh50,000, a court heard today.

Prosecutors told the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance that the murder on September 17 occurred days after AG, a 30-year-old from Pakistan, was released from custody following her arrest over the dud cheques.

They said that the receptionist and the Pakistani trader MF lured EA, also from Pakistan, to a rented one-bedroom apartment in a villa in Al Rashidiya and stabbed him multiple times in various parts of his body. They left him on the floor, locked the door and fled to Pakistan. It is unclear what tempted the receptionist back to the UAE - her alleged accomplice remains on the run.

An estate agent, AH, discovered the man's body at a flat she was renting from him.

Prosecutors said the woman had confessed to the premeditated murder, saying she had done so because he tried to force her into having sex with him. But she denied giving the man the dud cheques, telling her arresting officers that her signature was forged and that the man had stolen one of them from her purse.

She failed to appear before the court yesterday.

The estate agent who discovered the body said he agreed to let an apartment to the receptionist for Dh2,200 a month, but that when he met her to give her the keys she said she would have to pay him the next day.

"She asked me for Dh300 to send to her sick mother through a friend travelling to Pakistan that day," he said.

He tried to call her that evening, but could not get through and became suspicious. He told another tenant that he could have the apartment if the receptionist was not there.

When the two men arrived at the apartment, they forced open the door and found the dead body. The estate agent said he had known the woman since 2009, when she rented a flat in Al Qusais.

The next hearing will be on April 24.