Three Turks get five years for using fake credit cards

Three Turkish visitors who targeted high-end shops are sentenced to five years in prison for using forged credit cards on a lavish spending spree.

DUBAI // Three Turkish visitors who targeted high-end shops were sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for using forged credit cards on a lavish spending spree at Louis Vuitton, Emporio Armani and other stores. The trio spent Dh625,000 (US$170,000) on the cards at the Dubai Shopping Festival last winter before police caught them. A 26-year-old woman, NB, a 35-year-old man, AH, and a 38-year-old man, II, were also charged with forging seven Turkish passports, Dubai Immigration entry and exit stamps, and American Express, Visa and MasterCard cards. They will be deported after serving their terms.

A fourth defendant, JM, a 32-year-old Turkish man, was acquitted of all charges. The woman was arrested on February 4 after a shop owner at Mall of the Emirates reported that a young Turkish woman had made purchases with a fake credit card. She was arrested and confessed, officers testified. Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance heard she admitted using the cards along with her accomplices to buy merchandise from expensive shops at the Mall of the Emirates, including Roberto Cavalli, Burberry, Breitling, Louis Vuitton, Emporio Armani, Miss Sixty and the Smokers Centre.

The three also made purchases from three gold shops at the mall, and at City Centre at Benetton, Carrefour and JB James jewellery stores. At Burjuman they made purchases at MAC and Lacoste. Forged credit cards and a gold chain were found with the defendants. When police searched their house, they found a diamond-studded Breitling watch, three immigration stamps and credit card forgery machines.