DUBAI // Three men, including a police officer, pleaded not guilty yesterday to forging a police traffic accident report and using it to claim an insurance payment. Prosecutors said KM, 19, an Emirati police corporal; WE, 26, a Syrian barber; and WM, 29, a Syrian car rental company office manager, falsified the report that a car was seriously damaged in what was a minor accident. Police discovered last month that the car rental company was paid Dh123,250 (US$ 33,500) compensation in July by its insurer for a 4X4 vehicle it said was in an accident.
The accident report, then obtained by police, said the rental company's 4X4, which was leased to a customer, had collided with another car. Both drivers denied involvement in an accident, although the rental customer did admit that the 4X4 did sustain "minor scratches" to the front end while he was driving it. When the defendant WM was questioned by police, he said WE had given the car to another man, who has not been charged, who purposefully caused the damage to the vehicle listed in the report.
The court was told that WE told police that he obtained the traffic accident report from KM. When contacted, KM admitted to police that he had prepared a bogus accident report for WE. All denied forging the report at the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. hbathish@thenational.ae
