Dubai : An Emirati who was helped by a friend to stay in his house free of charge, allegedly rented the house for four years from 2008 to tenants and forged the owner’s signature on leases and electricity accounts, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.
The 58-year-old AMA, Emirati supervisor, is accused of forging the signature of the owner on six leases of Villa No. 10 in Al Quoz and used them by handing them over to tenants. He is also accused of forging electronic documents by submitting forged contracts to DEWA against which water and electricity accounts were transferred to the name of the tenants for issuing of bills in their names.
The victim MHM, 59, retired Emirati, testified that 30 years ago he built a house on land granted by the government. Ten years later, his friend Ismaeel asked him if he would allow his friend AMA to stay in the house for free. “I agreed to help AMA and allowed him to stay in the house for free. Early last year, AMA approached me and asked me to accompany him to the Municipal Council and to testify that I gave him a power of attorney to lease the flat. I refused and asked him to vacate the villa and to hand it over to me.
“Reviewing the issue with the Municipal Council and DEWA, I found out that AMA lease the villa by forging my signature on the leases since 2008. I never signed contracts with the tenants,” testified the villa’s owner. His son AMH, 26, employee repeated the same testimony saying that they discovered that there were disputes between AMA and the two companies that he had rented the villa to. He also rented the villa to other two individuals.
“In all the leases, AMA forged my father’s signature. He used to sign two contracts between him and the tenants, one in his name as owner of the villa and another in my father’s name as owner by forging my father’s signature. The second contracts were submitted to DEWA to transfer water and electricity accounts to the name of the tenants.”
Ahmad Talaat, 33, legal consultant testified that the villa is owned by MHM. AMA has been only a consumer of DEWA services from 1994 to 2008. In 2008, the water and electricity accounts of the villa were transferred by DEWA to the name of three tenants, two companies and an individual against leases that carried the owner’s signature.
The accused admitted to investigators that he rented the villa to tenants and received rents from them. He confessed that he used to sign two contracts with tenants: one in his name as the owner and used to hand them to tenants and another in the name of the victim which was submitted them to DEWA. The court will reconvene on April 25.
