Forgery: Four men lose plea

Four Indians convicted of buying 47 mobile phones with forged credit cards have lost their appeal. The first defendant was earlier sentenced to five years behind bars, while his other co-defendants received only three years in prison each. 

The four men, aged 25 to 34, were accused of using forged credit cards to buy 45 Samsung Note 4 and four iPhones from a Tubli electronics shop in January last year.

The case came to light after police received a tip-off about two of them, who were about to purchase 15 Samsung and Apple mobile phones from an electronics shop in City Centre Bahrain.

Explaining how the defendants landed in police net, a detective told prosecutors that “police received information about four Indians, who were on their way to purchase 50 mobile phones from an electronics shop in City Centre Bahrain. So we sketched a sting operation plan to capture the defendants red-handed.” “Two of them arrived at the shop at 1pm and were about to use their forged credit cards when we captured them.”

During interrogation, the two arrested men revealed the identities of their accomplices to the police. 

According to prosecutors, the defendants visited the shop in Tubli six times in January 2015 to make their purchases. The detective described the defendants as professional ‘fraudsters,’ who  purchased their devices online by the forged credit cards.  He said that 18 forged credit cards were found in the defendants’ possession. 

The convicted men will be deported after they complete their jail term.