Five-Year Sentence for a Kuwaiti Woman Who Duped Travel Manager in Hotel Scam

 KUWAIT CITY, April 9: The Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Hamoud Al-Shami, sentenced a Kuwaiti woman with a history of committing fraud to five years in prison for illegally obtaining money from an individual at a five-star hotel by impersonating an employee of the State Audit Bureau (SAB). The Public Prosecution charged the woman with fraudulently obtaining KD650 by deceiving the victim, the manager of a travel and tourism company, into believing that she works at SAB and has the authority to make contracts. Case files indicate that the defendant had earlier been convicted of a similar offense.

In the current case, the defendant claimed to be from SAB and that she is authorized to sign a contract to purchase a plane ticket for a Bahraini woman who is supposedly the guest of SAB, and to arrange her stay at a five-star hotel. The victim complied, purchased the ticket and booked the hotel for a total of cost of KD960. The defendant paid KD310 for the ticket, leaving a balance of KD650 for the hotel stay.

The victim’s repeated requests for payment of the remaining balance, evidenced by their correspondence, were ignored. The investigating officer testified that the defendant falsely claimed to be from SAB and used this false identity to obtain money for the hotel stay.

The court confirmed in its ruling that the documents proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the crime as a repeat offender, as she was previously convicted of fraud. It turned out that her criminal record is laden with fraud cases, indicating her bad conduct and even the fact that she is a ‘professional swindler’.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff