Woman bought forged UK passport for Dh25,000
She denies tampering with passport that she was caught using at airport before travelling
Dubai: A woman visitor has been accused of tampering with a British passport that she was caught using to travel outside the UAE.
A ground staff at one of the check-in counters at the Dubai International Airport was said to have notified the airport police that the 25-year-old Indian visitor had a forged travel document in November.
The ground staff asked the woman to accompany him to the airport’s police office where he informed them that her British passport was tampered with.
Prosecutors accused the Indian of tampering with the entry stamp on the passport and forging the travel document [page that bore her name and personal details] and using the forged documents.
The woman strongly refuted the accusations and pleaded not guilty when she appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
“I did not forge the stamp or the passport,” she contended before the presiding judge.
A policeman stationed at the airport told prosecutors that the ground staff walked into the office and brought in the woman with him.
“The staff claimed that when he was doing the check-in procedures for the woman to issue her the boarding pass, he discovered that the passport was forged. Upon checking the travel document, it was quite obvious that it had been tampered with. The entry stamp was also forged. Upon confronting the woman, she produced her Indian passport that she had used when she first came to Dubai. The entry stamp on the Indian passport read that she had arrived on October 11 while the stamp on the British passport read that she had arrived on October 27. During questioning, she admitted that she had purchased the British passport for Dh25,000 from an Asian man … She claimed that she did not know that the travel document was forged. When I asked her why she had paid that amount of money rather than applying for a visa, she said the man had only given her the passport without a visa,” the policeman testified to prosecutors.
Dubai Police’s forensic examination laboratory confirmed that the passport had been tampered with.
The presiding judge adjourned the hearing until the woman produces her written defence argument when the court reconvenes on February 7.
