Five get jail terms for $1.4 million traffic fraud in Kuwait

Cairo: A Kuwaiti court has sentenced five people, including a traffic employee, to five years in prison each for involvement in forging vehicle licences and illegally selling them, media reports said.

In addition to the traffic worker, the defendants included a Kuwaiti citizen and three members of the Bidoon (people without proper documents) community.

They were charged with forging licences of 54 vehicles linked to installments amounting to KD440,000 ($1.4 million) due to a company.

The prime defendant, i.e. the traffic employee, had colluded with co-defendants to fraudulently re-sell the vehicles to unsuspecting persons.

The company had filed a legal complaint on the case. Investigations revealed that the prime defendant and his partners were implicated as proven by evidence furnished by traffic and security authorities to the public prosecution.

There has recently been a rise in fraud cases in Kuwait despite repeated warnings from authorities to citizens and expatriates to be on guard against potential fraudsters and their ruses, Al Qabas newspaper has recently quoted what it termed as a well-informed source.

Cases related to real-estate scams top the swindle list, followed by phantom investment deals inside Kuwait or abroad, and fraud linked to luxury car purchases.

Last week, Kuwaiti police launched a hunt for an anonymous swindler, who defrauded several citizens of their money through bogus unbeatable offers for domestic workers.

Through the alleged offers, the fraudster was able to steal from their bank accounts through a link sent to the unsuspecting victims, Kuwaiti Al Anba newspaper reported, citing a security source.