Dubai: An Emirati woman has been accused of using her countrywoman’s ID without her knowledge to rent a Mercedes and racking up Dh75,000 in car rental bills.
The 33-year-old Emirati defendant tricked the victim into sharing copies of her ID card and driving licence on WhatsApp in a car sale scam before presenting the documents to a car rental service from where she rented the Mercedes for a month.
An Egyptian employee from the car rental office testified that the defendant called their office in February 2019, asking to rent the Mercedes GTS for one day.
“She sent her Emirates ID and driving licence via WhatsApp and asked that the car be delivered with the contract to her house in Al Qouz area. I went to the location and a woman wearing niqab signed on the contract and gave me Dh1,200 for renting the car for one day,” the employee said in records.
The defendant called the next day asking to extend the rental for a month.
“She kept the car until May 2019, and the rental reached Dh75,000. She paid Dh45,000 and promised to pay the rest later,” he added.
When she failed to pay the outstanding amount, the car rental picked up the vehicle which was parked in front of the woman’s house before lodging a complaint against her with the police.
The rental firm provided officers at Bur Dubai police station with copies of the documents the defendant used when she took the car and the police summoned the woman whose documents were used for the renting purpose.
“I received a call from the police asking to pay Dh30,000 for a car rental firm. I told them that I didn’t rent a car but they summoned me and showed me copies of my documents. I told them the documents were mine, but the signature was different,” the 46-year-old Emirati victim said in records.
However, when the victim saw the number of the defendant in the rental contract, she remembered the number as the defendant had scammed her before in car sale scam.
“I remembered that I sent her my documents via WhatsApp when she wanted to buy my car. I felt she was scamming me, so I had backed off from the deal,” she added.
The accused was traced and arrested by Dubai Police. She was charged with forgery in a lease contract, using official documents of others and fraudulently obtaining a car using forgery.
