Fake Red Crescent employee jailed

A man has been sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of posing as a Red Crescent worker to fraudulently obtain Dh405,000 worth of steel.

DUBAI // A man was sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of posing as a Red Crescent worker to fraudulently obtain Dh405,000 worth of steel.

YA, a 34-year-old Syrian, will be deported after completing his prison term, said the Dubai Criminal Court.

YA made a large order at a steel company and claimed it was for the Red Crescent. The company's manager became suspicious and tipped off police officers who arrested the defendant in a sting operation.

The 37-year-old Jordanian manager, QA, testified that the Syrian visited him at work on July 16 to buy 200 tonnes of steel and introduced himself as an Emirati Red Crescent employee.

The manager received a call from a man pretending to be the Syrian's supervisor to follow up the order. QA grew suspicious and called the Red Crescent. He was told they had no such employee.

YA was arrested on July 21 when he visited the company for the second time to provide the manager with a forged purchase order in the Red Crescent's name.

EO, a 38-year-old Emirati prison inmate, helped plan the crime with YA and also received three years in prison on the charge of criminal complicity.