Manager blames bank in bounced cheque case

Dubai: A manager has accused a bank of implicating him in a Dh60,000 bounced cheque case by using a guarantee cheque he had signed for a credit card.

"Your honour, I signed the cheque... but it was a guarantee cheque against a credit card. Besides I gave the bank's management a blank cheque and I didn't fill in the figure. The credit card's maximum limit was Dh6,000. I don't understand where the Dh60,000 came from," the 30-year-old Syrian manager S.A. told the Dubai Appeals Court on Tuesday.

Dubai Public Prosecution charged S.A. with issuing a Dh60,000 cheque, which bounced because of insufficient funds.

The defendant admitted that he issued the cheque but denied any criminal intention on his part.

"It is true that I signed the cheque… but I didn't fill any amount. When the bank's representative complained against me at the police station, the management requested me to pay Dh9,000. I told the investigating lieutenant that I issued the cheque to the bank because I had taken a credit card. If the maximum limit was Dh6,000 and they asked me in front of the police to pay Dh9,000, where did the Dh60,000 come from?" S.A. said.

The Dubai Misdemeanors Court had sentenced S.A. to three months in jail in absentia. In June, the Misdemeanors Court held a retrial, cancelled S.A's three-month term and jailed him for two months.

S.A. pleaded for leniency before the Appeals Court.