Palestinians get jail for air ticket fraud

A Doha criminal court has sentenced a Palestinian to three years in jail for fraud, while eight others, all Palestinian, were sentenced in absentia to five years in jail for being partners in the same crime, local Arabic daily Arrayah reported on Monday.According to the verdict, the defendant and his accomplices, who had already left the country, collaborated to commit an act of fraud by claiming that they have an online travel agency that can purchase air tickets of different carriers at a discount of 35%, in addition to duping their victims by claiming they can get traffic violation fine waived. The issue was brought to the attention of the Public Prosecution when a Qatari man filed a complaint against the defendants accusing them of stealing his private ID copy and credit card information, and using them to buy air tickets online in his name. He also submitted a copy of his bank account statement indicating the amounts misappropriated this way. Investigations also revealed that the defendants posted an ad on the Internet claiming that they can get their clients 35% discount on air ticket bookings. They used WhatsApp to communicate with their victims and bought stolen credit cards through a Russian website. They used these and other stolen credit cards to pay for their traffic violations fine and air tickets bookings.The court convicted them based on the investigations and the documents that proved their crime, the daily added.