Abu Dhabi courts jails man who paid $8 mln for No. 1 plate with dud cheque

An Abu Dhabi court has confirmed that the appeals circuit has upheld a sentence of three years in jail after he had been convicted of fraud after writing a bad cheque worth $8.4 mln (AED 31 mln) to pay for the emirate’s number 1 license plate.

The man is expected to serve his three-year sentence.

The cheque was issued during an auction in 2016 for special car plate numbers when the businessman made the $8 mln bid for the number 1 care plate. Auctioneers then found out they could not cash in the cheque as the bank holder had insufficient balance.

The man confessed that he had written the cheque in bad faith and was hoping to sell the car plate later on at a higher price.

Abu Dhabi plate number one was previously sold at AED 52.2 mln to an Emirati businessman in 2008, setting a record of being the costliest plate number in the UAE.

Last month, an Indian businessman based in Dubai made waves in the local media by bidding for Dubai number plate for AED 33 million dirhams ($8.98 million).