Bahrain court lowers jail term for fraud accused

Manama: The Supreme Appeal Court has reduced the jail term of a GCC national, who was convicted on grounds of fraud. The court replaced his three years imprisonment to two years following an appeal.

The defendant was arrested after an exchange company in Hidd reported to the Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security Directorate about receiving counterfeit AED500 bills, totally amounting to AED7,000.

The money was given to the exchange company by a Bahraini man who was later nabbed, but he was released after he revealed during interrogation that the money was given to him by the defendant.

“I work in a hotel, and he (the GCC national) came to me requesting to exchange money. He gave me AED7000, and I gave him BD700. I held the money in my hand for some time, and it left a strange discolouration. Therefore, I headed directly to the exchange company to ascertain if the bills were genuine or not,” the Bahraini man told prosecutors.

The defendant, however, denied any involvement with the counterfeit bills. “I own a retail fashion shop, and a Pakistani man bought a large quantity of clothes from me and gave me the bills,” he said.

He was charged with producing fake bills and possessing counterfeit money with the intention of using it. His conviction was established after it was learned that he was using a different currency during his stay in the hotel and at the same time he was searching for someone to exchange the AED bills to another currency despite being aware that the AED currency was accepted in Bahrain.