Abu Dhabi court orders fraudsters to repay Dh168,700 stolen through fake bank emails

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Court has ordered two fraudsters to return Dh168,700 to a man after it was established that the funds had been transferred to their accounts as a result of fraudulent messages in which they impersonated a bank employee.

According to court records, the plaintiff intended to rent an apartment owned by a real estate company and agreed through a real estate broker to rent the property for Dh300,000.

While completing the rental procedures, he received emails that appeared to be from a bank employee requesting payment of fees related to reserving and registering the apartment, as well as the down payment required to secure it.

The man subsequently transferred Dh28,700 to one account and Dh140,000 to another account.

The fraud was later discovered and the defendants were convicted in a criminal case. The court issued a judgment in absentia finding them guilty of the offences attributed to them due to their involvement in the scheme and sentenced them to one year in prison and deportation.

Court documents showed that the criminal judgment concluded that the messages which prompted the plaintiff to make the payments resulted from the hacking of the leasing company’s email account and the impersonation of a bank employee.

In its ruling, the civil court stated that the law provides that no person may take another person’s property without a legitimate reason and that anyone who does so must return it.

The court also noted that it is bound by the findings of the criminal judgment.

However, the court rejected the plaintiff’s request to hold the defendants jointly liable, stating that there was no evidence that either defendant had received or retained money that had entered the other’s account.

The court therefore ordered each defendant to return the amount proven to have been transferred into his account, in addition to paying court expenses and legal fees.