Man sells fake perfume; pockets Dh235,000

A salesman and an accountant conned an investor of Dh235,000 by claiming they supplied genuine perfume from the Free Zone, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.
 
Last September, WA, an Indian investor asked his friend and countryman, SS, 21, to arrange an entry permission to the Free Zone at Dubai International Airport.
 
WA supplied SS with photocopies of his company’s licence and passport and the latter issued him the required permission.
 
The investor told SS that an European trader was interested in buying genuine perfume.
 
SS and his friend RT assured the trader that they know dealers in the Free Zone who can arrange the required items. The two supplied the investor with email addresses of two traders whom they claimed they had worked with in the free zone.
 
The investor asked the two Free Zone dealers to send him quotations and price lists.
 
After a couple of days, the investor received emails with price lists.
 
After agreeing on the prices, the investor asked his friend SS to bring the perfume. The investor handed the value of the purchased perfume to SS after he had received invoices form the Free Zone traders.
 
The investor asked SS to keep the perfume in his house as there was no place in his company’s store and he handed him the amount. Later, when he needed to send the perfume to the European dealer, he checked some containers and found they were not genuine.
 
He also double checked the perfume bottles with others dealers in the market, and he was assured that they were not genuine.
 
The investor confronted SS who accepted his guilt. The investor made SS sign on a sheet and the latter agreed to return the money if the latter handed back the perfume bottles.
 
When SS failed to return the money to the investor, the latter lodged a complaint with the police.
 
SS admitted that he had forged invoices of the Free Zone using Adobe Photoshop.
 
He also admitted that RT and others had helped him in committing the crime.
 
RT, 25, accountant admitted that he had told the victim that he works in the Free Zone and knows perfume traders.
 
Police reported that the victim had received 70 emails that contained invoices, which carried the Free Zone logo and were sent from the UAE.
 
The court will reconvene on April 22.