Luxury watch thief gets 2 years in jail in Kuwait

Cairo: A Kuwaiti court has handed down a two-year-jail term to a man charged with fraud after seizing wristwatches allegedly to auction them off online.

The defendant, dubbed the “thief of luxury watches”, had been sent to the misdeamenour court charged with stealing more than 40 watches on the pretext of putting them up on auction.

More than 40 cases had been filed against him. A lawyer for one victim requested at the court the defendant be given an imprisonment after accusing him of stealing a watch worth KD60,000 ($194,416) from her client.

Lawyer Hawra Al Habib presented to the court a note exchanged between the accused and her client confirming that the former had sold the watch, which meant he had actually received the timepiece and sold it, but did not give her client the money.

The lawyer warned that fraud has become so rife that people need to be careful.

“There is real estate fraud and investment fraud, and even it has extended to tickets for matches taking place in the current Gulf Cup tournament (in Kuwait),” she was quoted by Al Anba newspaper.

The lawyer explained that some individuals claim to have tickets and exploit fans’ eagerness to attend the games. “But after money is transferred, they disappear and the matter turns out to be a sort of fraud,” she said.

Oman and Bahrain will battle in the final of the Gulf Cup Saturday night in the 26th edition of the prestigious tournament.