Dubai court charges father and son with usury

The pair have been accused of confiscating credit cards of debtors who could not pay back loans, and using them to withdraw large amounts of money.

DUBAI // A father and son have appeared in court accused of usury.

MJK, 56, and MK, 36, ran an illegal business through which they would charge 10 per cent interest on loans they made to desperate borrowers, prosecutors told the Criminal Court.

The pair would confiscate the credit cards of debtors who could not pay back the loans, and use the cards to withdraw large amounts of money.

Prosecutors said the incidents took place throughout the first months of 2013 and were discovered by police on May 2 when the father used the credit card of a debtor to make multiple withdrawals over a three-hour period from a single ATM machine in Jumeirah.

Policeman AA, 26, arrested the father at the ATM machine.

“When I arrested him, he had several credit cards in his pocket,” recalled the policeman.

Investigations found that the father had used more than ten credit cards to withdraw large amounts of cash earlier that day.

When police searched his apartment they arrested his son and found 324 credit cards, Dh80,555 in cash, five passports, jewellery and watches that had been taken from debtors who failed to pay back their loans.

The court heard from a worker who said he had taken a loan of Dh500 from the pair and was required to pay it back with Dh50 interest.

Prosecutors and police claimed that the father and son had confessed to the charges during interrogation. However, in court, they denied a charge of usury.

The next hearing will be later this month.