Abu Dhabi: The presiding judge at the Abu Dhabi Court of Misdemeanours reprimanded the Public Prosecution and Abu Dhabi Police on Sunday for a failure to present an accused in court in connection with the Dh1.6b fraud case relating to the sale of vehicles and money laundering.

The case involves 54 people, mostly Emiratis. During the previous court session, the judge had directed the public prosecution and the police to ensure that another accused, A.A, was produced in court during the next hearing.

On Tuesday, the court heard arguments of the defence, which termed all accusations baseless, although, that argument was strongly countered by the public prosecution.

The defence counsel argued: “My client was running a car trading business and possessed a licence of it from Department of Economic Development. Even he has all contract documents for car sales between both parties. So the charges against my client are false and fabricated by the public prosecution.”

An official from the prosecution told the presiding judge that “the accused exploited people’s money under the guise of car trading and invested in other projects. Such defaulting activities and 20 vehicles were confiscated from the possession of the accused.”

Why the prosecution had given seized vehicles to different medical centres was not “understandable”, the defence queried.

“We confiscated more than 400 vehicles in this case from all accused and our car parks were full so we distributed it to different medical centres and available parking lots,” the prosecution said.

The defendants in case have been charged with fraud and money laundering. The men were arrested on charges of conning up to 3,700 people of more than Dh1.6 billion. Eight of the suspects were caught with the help of Interpol.

Almost 2,000 people who were caught up in a billion-dirham investment scam have come forward with financial claims of up to Dh310 million, prosecutors had said in the previous hearings.

Police began investigating the case last year after receiving more than 400 complaints in five days. Investigations showed the scamsters would sell at least one car a day, which was then re-purchased by the dealerships several times. The defendants would buy expensive cars with the victims’ money. The accused also bought real estate and stocks, while one bought camels valued at Dh10 million.

Due to complications and the involvement of a large number of people in the case, the court has divided it into four cases.

Now, four separate cases are being heard at the court one after the other.

The first case involves 38 people, the second 12, the third one and the fourth case has three defendants.

The defence lawyer said in relation to the money laundering case: “In first place, it’s not possible because all banking details of my client are registered with central bank and which has freezed the account too. And the prosecution, as per the rules of the country, cannot file the money laundering case without prior approval from the attorney general.”

The public prosecution said the approval had already been obtained from the attorney general and its details and copies were submitted to the court.

The judge asked the accused in the third case whether he wanted to furnish any information, to which he replied: “I was simply running a car trading business and all charges against me are baseless and I am innocent, so please set me free.”

The hearing in the case will continue on Monday.