Jail time reduced for trio in fake euro scam, Dubai court rules

The court ordered the confiscation of the fake notes, and the trio will be deported after serving their terms.

DUBAI // Three men caught with more than €500 million in fake notes have had their two-year jail sentences reduced to one.

The two Croatian men, 49 and 36, and a Macedonian, 52, had €547m in fake €500 notes when arrested at the Marriott Hotel in Dubai.

In August 2015, a 36-year-old Indian man who worked for a money transfer business gave the men 6 million rupees for €100,000.

Two of the three met the Indian man at a hotel in Al Muraqqabat and handed him the notes in an envelope. One of the pair claimed to be an Italian citizen.

He did not realise the notes were counterfeit until after he left the hotel.

“They asked me if I checked the cash then I opened the envelope and noticed the money was fake,” he said. “They blamed me for not double-checking the notes before we returned to the hotel to look for the Italian who handed me the money.”

The men denied charges of possessing fake money but were convicted and sentenced to two years in jail by the Dubai Criminal Court. The Court of Appeal reduced that to one.

The court ordered that the fake notes be confiscated, and ruled that the trio would be deported after serving their terms.