In May 2020, during the Covid-19 global pandemic, James Kariuki Thiong'o was in the United Arab Emirates searching for employment after losing a job as a security guard in one of the companies in Dubai.
Mr Kariuki met a potential employer, a Nigerian national, who offered to employ him. The prospective employer asked for his original identification documents including his residency permit.
However, the Nigerian later went missing with the documents and Mr Kariuki carried on with his life waiting for the hiring. He was living with a friend.
Mr Kariuki was surprised to be arrested alongside a Ugandan national by the country's authorities over accusations of electronic fraud involving 1,180,500 Dirhams (Sh41.6 million). A person using his identity received a share of 325,000 Dirhams (Sh11.4 million).
He was detained on August 13, 2020, and convicted on September 15 the same year on charges of 'seizure by using information technology'. Mr Kariuki was imprisoned for one year at Sharjah Correctional and Penal Institution and listed for deportation.
However, while in prison he was implicated in another scam involving theft of two million Dirhams (Sh70 million) from two companies named Arab Rock Engineering Ltd and Oceanic Wave International.
The fraud was executed through an email address and bank accounts opened by an unknown person using Mr Kariuki's identification credentials.
Court filings indicate that the two companies had a commercial relationship. The fraud scheme started with the opening of an email account that was almost similar to that of Arab Rock Engineering Ltd. The company's email was [email protected]
The sender, pretending to be Arab Rock Engineering, requested Oceanic Wave to deposit the two million Dirhams to its account at the Bank of Oman. Arab Rock received another email indicating that there had been a change and was asked to deposit money into a new account at Emirates NBD bank. The amount was transferred in two tranches via online in January and February 2021.
The fraud was discovered after a representative of Oceanic contacted Rock Engineering demanding the payment but Rock Engineering said it had already transferred the full amount.
Mr James Kariuki Thiong'o who is jailed in Dubai over electronic fraud by unknown person using his identity.
Photo credit: Pool
After court trial, Mr Kariuki was found guilty of 'seizure by using information technology.' He was fined two million Dirhams with interest at a rate of nine per cent annually.
According to his attorney, the fraud was executed by an imposter since the communication exchange and eventual theft as well as withdrawal happened when Mr Kariuki was in prison serving his sentence.
"According to investigations, the appellant was a prisoner at Sharjah at the time of the incident," his attorney Jumaa Maleh, from Maleih Advocates & Legal Consultants, states in the court papers.
Since September 2020, Mr Kariuki has been in prison fighting to prove his innocence after being unable to raise the two million Dirhams. The matter is now at the appeal stage.
"No one believed him when he explained that he had not received any money and that there was someone using his identity to carry out electronic fraud operations and withdraw the transfers," his attorney says.
He explains that the reason for his client's conviction originated from the handing over of his identity documents to a person he did not know while searching for work.
"Whereas the appellant did not have a lawyer to defend him and provide documents and papers proving his presence in prison while other person's were committing electronic fraud against Arab Rock Engineering, we are clarifying to court the impossibility of the appellant to have received any amount as he was in prison pursuant to the court ruling serving a term which was supposed to end on December 8, 2021," explains the attorney in the 16-page appeal.
"The current incident occured in January and February 2021, which confirms the impossibility of the appellant to have obtained any sums of money."
Investigations revealed that the fake email used in the fraudulent operation was operated outside the UAE, the attorney says.
He adds that while Mr Kariuki was in prison, the fraudster's bank accounts were still actively trading and cashing-in cheques.
For instance, he says the account made five transactions with a value of 1.1 million Dirhams.
"The cheques were cashed by the bank while the appellant was in prison, which makes it impossible for him to be the one who cashed the cheque. It was not reasonable to cash in the cheque while in prison," says the attorney.
"Through investigations and inquiry, it became clear that Mr Kariuki was detained in the correctional and penal institution of Sharjah police for a similar case on charges of seizure by using information technology."
Mr Kariuki had worked as a security guard in UAE for seven years, from 2012 to 2019, for Transguard Group LLC and he was known for his honesty, his lawyer says.
The company laid off staff in 2019 in preparation for the cancellation of its license. He returned to Kenya and travelled back to UAE in May 2020 on a visit visa to search for a new job.
"The judgment was issued contrary to the law and erred in the application of its provisions, was deficient and erroneous in its interpretation with insufficient and corrupt in its reasoning. It is a violation of the right to defence and a contradiction of what was established in the court papers and a fundamental violation of the rights of defence. The judgement was unfair to him," argues the attorney.
According to the lawyer, the judgment carried contradictions that were not consistent with reason and logic.
He says that the other person, a Ugandan national, who received the 755,000 Dirhams, was acquitted by the police.
"The appealed judgment erred in obligating the appellant to pay the sum of two million Dirhams as he had been a prisoner restricted from his freedom and has not been released to-date. He did not receive any sum from Rock Engineering Ltd and did not cash in any cheques as this was impossible," states the attorney.
Insisting that it is the duty of judges to remove injustice that was wrongly imposed on a person, the attorney says Mr Kariuki was wrongly convicted due to theft of his identity.
