After the fraudster was convicted in the criminal case, the victim filed a civil lawsuit to recover the Dh42,500 he had lost.
A fraudster who tricked a tenant into transferring Dh42,500 in rent to a fake bank account has been convicted by a court.
The scam began when the tenant, who was renting a property from a company, received a message from someone posing as an employee of the firm while he was preparing to renew his lease.
The impersonator instructed the tenant to transfer the rent to a specified bank account. Believing the message had come from an authorised representative of the property company, the tenant transferred Dh42,500.
The tenant later discovered that the bank account did not belong to the property company and realised he had been deceived in a rental scam. The incident led to a criminal complaint and subsequent legal proceedings, which resulted in the individual linked to the fraudulent transaction being convicted.
Civil lawsuit
Following the criminal proceedings, the victim approached the civil court seeking to recover the money he had lost.
He filed a lawsuit before the Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Claims Court, asking the defendant to repay the full Dh42,500.
The tenant also sought Dh10,000 in compensation for the material, moral and psychological harm he said he suffered as a result of the fraud, along with 10 per cent legal interest from the date the case was filed until the amount was paid.
In its assessment of the case, the civil court relied on the findings established during the earlier criminal proceedings.
Under the legal principle governing the relationship between criminal and civil judgments, facts conclusively established by a criminal court regarding an act that forms the basis of both cases cannot be reopened before the civil court.
The court subsequently ordered the defendant to repay the Dh42,500 transferred by the tenant.
The case serves as a reminder of the risks of following payment instructions received through messages without independently verifying the recipient’s bank details with the landlord or property management company.
