An English Man Visiting Dubai Has Been Jailed For Using A Fake Credit Card

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An Englishman has been jailed in Dubai for a year after being found guilty of using a fake credit card.

Lucas Belmonte was using the card for a luxury vacation with his girlfriend and staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

When the pair arrived at the hotel to check in, they encountered a problem with the credit card’s authorization code, which Belmonte was able to rectify at the time. However, three days later on December 30, members of the CID apprehended the couple, according to international reports.

Belmonte, a 22-year-old from Kent claims the credit card was given to him by a friend, and that he had been given permission to use it. The friend told him it was a company credit card.

He has been jailed for one year

He was taken to Bur Dubai police station where he has remained since. 

Belmonte claims he was forced into signing an inaccurate statement in Arabic which admitted guilt.

According to the Daily Mail, his mother appealed to HH Sheikh Mohammed Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to let her son go, she said;

“I would like to appeal to the ruler of Dubai, to say to him I know he is a fair man and to ask him please look at my son’s case and let him come home as he did with other Brits such as Jamie Harron and Billy Barclay who were unjustly detained.

I just want Luke to come home. He is very young, very frightened and in prison in a strange country he does not know. If he can be given a pardon by the country’s ruler he can come home.”

He has been jailed for one year and fined AED73,000 (£20,000).

Article 13 of the UAE cybercrime law states the punishment of credit-card fraud in the Emirates can range from one month to three years imprisonment and a fine of between Dh500,000 and Dh2 million.

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