Appeal Court finds five guilty in 437,000 dinars vehicle document forgery case
Three accused (first, second, and fifth) get five-year prison terms, third and fourth put behind bars for three years
The Second Circuit of Kuwait’s Court of Appeals has handed prison sentences ranging from three to five years with hard labor to a criminal network involving a traffic department employee, a Kuwaiti citizen who owned a car rental company, and three ‘illegal residents’ for their roles in a large-scale vehicle registration forgery and fraud scheme.
The court found the defendants guilty of falsifying vehicle registration records for cars still carrying outstanding installment payments, before illegally selling the vehicles and misappropriating the proceeds.
According to the Public Prosecution, the first defendant, an employee at the General Traffic Department, manipulated the traffic department’s electronic system and remove the phrase ‘with outstanding installments’ from 54 vehicle registration files. Prosecutors said this enabled the vehicles to be sold as fully paid assets despite existing financial obligations.
Authorities stated the employee collaborated with the second defendant, a Kuwaiti citizen who officially owned a car rental company, along with three ‘illegal residents’, to market and sell the vehicles to unsuspecting buyers acting in good faith. The gang allegedly pocketed large sums from the fraudulent transactions.
During court proceedings, the first defendant denied the accusations, claiming he had relied on a client-issued letter confirming that installment payments had been settled. He also said he had already faced an administrative investigation by the Ministry of Interior regarding the disputed transactions.
The second defendant argued that he was only the nominal owner of the rental company because he was a Kuwaiti citizen, while the actual business operations were managed by the third and fourth defendants, who were residing illegally in Kuwait.
He told the court that he had agreed to lend his name to the company in exchange for a monthly payment after retirement to supplement his income.
He further claimed that he later discovered the alleged forgery and fraudulent sales through the fifth accused, who owned a car showroom involved in the transactions, reports Al-Anba daily.
The plaintiff company informed the court that the total value of the vehicles involved in the case amounted to KD 437,400.
The Criminal Court had originally sentenced all defendants to five years imprisonment due to the interconnected nature of the crimes.
However, the Court of Appeals later upheld the five-year prison terms for the first, second, and fifth defendants, while reducing the sentences of the third and fourth defendants to three years imprisonment after acquitting them of direct participation in the forgery charges, convicting them instead of fraudulently obtaining the proceeds from the vehicle sales.
