In what is an early contender for headline of the year a Dubai man has been jailed for 5 years after using £5 million of his wife's money in order to purchase Portsmouth FC football club.
Dubai newspaper The National reported that the man along with his accountant have been jailed for forgery of official documents and use of forged official documents.
The Emirati wife of the accused had set up a fixed deposit account at her bank but after failing to receive any profits from the account, contacted the accounts manager who tried to dissuade her suspicions:
He sent me an email in August 2010 confirming that the procedures for the fixed deposit had been completed and recommended that I continue my investment for another year.
She also stated that the manager had sent her some documents to sign but that she had refused to do so.
Then, in September 2011, she contacted the accounts manager again, asking him to move the amount of her fixed deposit to a different bank because she had still not received any profit:
But he kept stalling so I visited the bank and met the bank manager and another man, they told me that my account had zero money in it.
The manager in question told the authorities that the woman’s husband was handling her fixed deposit after she gave him official authorisation, and that the husband transferred the money to a law firm in the UK. The story then takes a turn for the bizarre after court records show that the money taken from the victim were used by the law firm representing the accused to buy the then Premier League football club Portsmouth FC.
The woman denied giving her husband authorisation to manage the account, stating ‘I didn’t give my husband any authorisation to withdraw or transfer the money, I just gave him an authorisation to handle general inquires by phone and fax’.
So let this be a lesson to all you women out there, joint accounts are a bad idea! Sure they might seem practical at the time, but if you take your eye off the ball you could come home to find your significant other has bought a majority stake in a struggling English football club.
H/T: The National
