He faked his death to avoid paying a loan.
A man, who forged his own death certificate to evade repaying a huge loan to a bank, was handed a five-year prison term on Sunday by the Court of First Instance.
The court was told the 50-year-old Emirati man, formerly a soldier, falsely claimed he was dead to avoid settling a Dh700,000 bank loan.
The man was also ordered by the court to pay a Dh700,000 fine, worth of what he misappropriated from the bank.
His wife, 65, was sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay a fine worth over Dh1 million. According to public prosecution records, she presented the fake death certificate to the Department of Community Development and misappropriated Dh1,097,200, worth of financial support to her children.
The main defendant’s 67-year-old father was sentenced to one year in jail, and ordered to pay a fine worth Dh700,000 for his part in forging the fake documents and using them.
The case dates back to and prior to May 4, 2008.
A police lieutenant said that the defendant was sentenced to one month in jail in 2008 for issuing threats and consuming alcohol charges. He was then discharged from the army. The man travelled to Yemen to evade repaying Dh700,000 he owed to a bank as a personal loan.
He forged his own death certificate, with the help of his uncle, and submitted it to the UAE general consulate there.
His father then travelled there and got the certificate which he presented to various authorities here, including the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), the Ministry of Health (the Preventive Medicine Department) and the bank. He got a death certificate issued from the Ministry of Health after using that fake document.
The bank then dropped the loan case based on the forged certificate.
A copy of the same document was obtained by the wife, who unlawfully claimed a monthly financial aid for her children.
However, the main defendant was at some point caught by the Omani border authorities after he tried to illegally sneak into the UAE. He was jailed for five months, after which he was deported to the UAE.
The ruling has been appealed.
