This African man splurges Dh71,198 with stolen credit cards at Dubai Duty Free

A man has been charged at a Dubai court after he allegedly used another man's boarding pass and made purchases worth Dh71,198 with stolen credit cards at the Dubai Duty Free.

The Court of First Instance heard how the 30-year-old South African man, who was on a transit stop at the Dubai International Airport, when he showed a boarding pass ticket, that was not his, to the Duty Free staff to purchase with two stolen credit cards on August 20. Prosecutors accused him of making purchases worth Dh71,198 with the stolen cards. He misappropriated the credit cards after finding a wallet in a plane. He has been charged with misusing a boarding pass, unlawful use of credit cards, fraud, and misappropriation of a lost property. When interrogated by the public prosecution, the tourist said he was travelling from South Africa to Kuala Lumpur via Dubai.

"I was the last to exit the plane when I saw a wallet left behind on a seat. I took it and went to the Duty Free. I purchased a smart phone, a laptop, a bag and other valuable stuff with two credit cards I found in that wallet."

He suddenly panicked and decided to return to his home country and cancel his flight to Kuala Lumpur. He bought a travel ticket on business class at Dh13,012 with one of the stolen cards. On September 29, he arrived at the Dubai airport as a transit passenger on his way to Istanbul. He was then caught by the police. The man confessed to the investigators that he used the stolen cards and also used a boarding pass, belonging to another traveller, when making the illegal purchases so that he would not be caught.

An airline security officer said they received an e-mail on September 18 from an American woman informing them that she had lost a credit card and that it was used about 18 times to make withdrawals worth Dh71,198.

"We found it was the accused, who made those purchases, after which he travelled to Johannesburg on business class with a Dh13,012 ticket he bought with the stolen credit card. He even used another man's boarding pass so to avoid being caught."
An arrest warrant was issued then against the transit passenger.
"We restrained him and alerted the police on October 1 when he arrived again in Dubai from Johannesburg. He confessed that he bought jewellery and two watches among other items. Dh12,250 was withdrawn from one credit card and Dh58,948 from the other.

The court will sentence him on December 30.