Man who pretended to be royalty to steal jewellery jailed in Dubai

Emirati showed Iranian victim a forged passport that made out he was a Sheikh before he persuaded her to part with her gold.

DUBAI // A man who claimed to be a member of Dubai’s ruling family as a ploy to steal jewellery from a woman has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Dubai Criminal Court convicted Emirati S A, 35, with use of forged official documents and embezzlement, which he denied in court in May.

The Iranian victim F A, 23, said she met the defendant on Blackberry Messenger nearly four years ago and he claimed to be a sheikh from the Al Maktoum family. In August 2011, the defendant used a forged passport to convince his Iranian victim he was royalty.

“During one of our chats he told me he owned jewellery stores and requested to check my jewellery to see if it was real,” F A said.

The woman gave him two sets of gold jewellery, each with a pair of earrings, a necklace, a bracelet and a ring.

“The items were given to him by the security guy in my building,” she said.

When she asked for the items back, the defendant stalled. The Iranian woman got fed up and reported him to police.

S A had sold the jewellery to a store owned by a Yemen national.

“S A came to me to sell two sets of gold he claimed belonged to his wife,” said Indian salesman A G, 58, who added that he bought the gold as the defendant had known the store owner for many years.

Yemeni store owner T A said he melted one of the sets of jewellery then the defendant’s sister called and asked to buy the other set. She paid Dh15,700 for the remaining set before police approached the shop to ask about the gold.

“They asked us for purchase receipts but we told them we didn’t make one because we knew the defendant for a long time,” T A said.

A forensic team found a picture of the forged passport on the Blackberry device.

* The article has been amended since it was first published.