DUBAI // Four men who tricked a tenant out of Dh77,000 by renting him a villa they did not own were yesterday sentenced to two years in jail each.
MA, 39, unemployed; AA, 33, a clerk; AR, 28, an interior designer; and MN, 30, his business partner, forged the villa's ownership certificate and a lease contract to dupe the tenant FA.
They presented the forged documents to an estate agency and the tenant who paid them Dh42,000 in cash and wrote them a cheque for Dh35,000.
The tenant's wife had approached RE, a 40-year-old Filipina estate agent, seeking a two-bedroom villa in Al Barsha. However, the estate agent could not find such a property and suggested instead a villa in the Springs that she had found on the internet.
The estate agent spoke to a man who claimed to represent the owner then visited the villa with the tenant and his wife to check it before paying the money and taking the villa's key.
The next morning the tenant's wife called the estate agent to say the keys would not open the villa's door. When the estate agent contacted the man claiming to represent the owner, he said he was in Pakistan and advised her to break open the door. When they did so, they found the villa was already furnished.
All of the men will be deported after serving their prison terms.
salamir@thenational.ae