DUBAI // Two men sold more than two dozen cars from their boss' company without permission and forged shipping letters to get several out of the country, a court heard this morning.
WM, 27, Syrian and AH, 28, Omani, denied the charges.
The Dubai Criminal Criminal Court of First Instance was told WM illegally obtained more than Dh500,000 in cash as well as three contracts to import cars, two signed blank cheques from Dubai Commercial Bank, three chequebooks from the same bank, and 18 cars. AH was an accomplice, and between the two men 11 more cars were stolen, the charges say.
The cars' brands included BMW, Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes, Audi, Ford, and Honda. Prosecutors say they were illegally sold from Al Diyaa Company, which trades in vehicles.
Records show that the incidents took place between May 25, 2009, and February 16, 2010 with the assistance of a man identified in records as MM, who remains at large.
ZM, 54, Syrian, a partner at the car trading company, testified that he was jailed in a bounced cheque case and asked WM and MM to handle run the company in his absence.
He noted that he left 33 cars at the company in May 2009 before he was jailed, but friends and business owners near his company told him that soon only five remained.
"They told me that the car sales were very rapid at my company which aroused my suspicions," he said in records.
ZM asked his lawyer to check on his company and retrieve all official documents for the cars, as well as their keys, from the two men.
The lawyer told him at least one car had disappeared from the car park overnight when he stopped to look. He then reported the incident to police after he discovered that 26 cars had been shipped to different countries, including Japan, for much less than their value of Dh3.8 million.
Prosecutors said the men confessed during investigations.
The next hearing will be on November 20.
salamir@thenational.ae
