DUBAI // A British legal adviser who was found guilty of forging a health club membership card and giving it to his fiancee has won an appeal against his deportation.
The man, 33, who denied the forgery charge, would have been deported immediately had he not appealed in February.
On Sunday, the Dubai Court of Appeals removed the deportation order but upheld his suspended three-month jail term, which means that if he commits the same crime within three years he will have to serve the three months and a new sentence.
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Today in court:
■ Men who tied up tenants while they looted and flooded their Discovery Gardens flat lose appeal bid
■ Dubai Policeman 'took bribes to arrest residency offenders'
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“I’m not guilty and it was not my intention to use the card, nor did I forge it,” he told judges. “I knew it was forged but I wasn’t going to use it.”
His fiancee was reported to police by a Nakheel building security guard on June 30 last year for using the fake membership card.
“The guard called me so I went to the club where I saw the woman,” an Iraqi manager for Nakheel said. “She said the defendant had given her the card and shortly after the defendant arrived.
“When I asked him about the card, he said he got it from a printing company and gave it as a gift to his fiancee but never thought she would use it.”
salamir@thenational.ae
