Q: Dear Sir, I had taken a personal loan from a bank of AED 173,000 in 2016 and was paying on time until I lost my job in 2018. The total I paid back is AED 173,875.64, and balance to pay is AED 42,986.90 Currently, I don't have a job and after three months of pending instalment since July 2019, the bank collection agent started calling and saying they will bounce the security cheque. On 8th Oct they had deposited the cheque and bounced and later I saw in internet banking that the cheque number deposited was different from the one which I had signed during the application process. As I have the copy of cheque with me, I talked to the agent after that and they insisted that it was the cheque that I signed and they aren't giving me more clarification on that. Kindly advise, what if they go for a case of the deposited cheque with a different serial number?

Q: Hi, I invested AED 75,000 with a company that intended a takeover of CCTV installation, and the company is located in DAFZA with 4 partners. They made me sign an internal contract which wasn't signed by all the partners and I never got a copy of the same signed by all 4 partners. I kept chasing them for the same as well as for MOA from DAFZA and name change on Trade Licence but got only excuses. Finally, after 3 months of chasing them, they informed me that they don't intend to take over the company and wanted to divert my funds elsewhere. I refused and asked for a refund. They gave me a fraud cheque that got bounced due to the unauthorized signatory. I filed a police complaint, after which the authorized signatory was summoned by police. Later the signatory contacted me and wanted to settle it in 4 PDCs across 3 months but on a condition that I return him the fraud cheque which is the only proof I have proving his fraud intentions. Kindly advise if his demand for the return of fraud cheque is valid?

Q: I own 10% of the shares of a restaurant. The contract I have had already matured and I was issued a cheque. Naturally, the cheque bounced, but along the way, the cheque was sent back to my old company so I no longer possess the cheque. And I was promised that the debt will be paid, but more than 1 year has passed and I haven't been paid anything. I still possess the original contract and a letter stating that he will pay his dues. Is this usable if I want to file a case claiming that he owes me AED 130k?

In the UAE, cheque bounce is a very frequent problem faced by people during their span in the country. It is covered under the purview of Commercial Transactions Law, and legal implications/penalties can be financially severe and daunting for more “serious” offenses. Bounced cheque issues may arise in a variety of commercial transactions, including but not limited to, companies’ exchanges, bank loans, property rents or purchases, and individual transactions.

There are always conditions where people may fail to provide sufficient documents of a certain business or project they are willing to engage in, so they tend to commit an act of forgery with their documents to meet the requirements. But this act is a crime and it has consequences in law which we will try to cover in this article.

This Law promulgates the Federal Penal Code (Criminal Law) of the United Arab Emirates. Crimes and chastisement punishments shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other penal codes.

The provisions of this law, promulgating UAE Civil Code, govern the civil transactions in the United Arab Emirates. The commercial transactions remain subject to the laws and regulations applicable in their regard.

The provisions of this Decree by Law amend the Federal Law No. (18) of 1993 by replacing Clause (4) of Article (379) as well as Articles (600), (617), (641), (642), (643), (644), and adding new articles numbered (635) Bis, (641) Bis (1), (641) Bis (2), (641) Bis (3), (641) Bis (4), (643) Bis (1), (643) Bis (2), (644) Bis (1) and (644) Bis (2). The Decree-Law also repeals Articles (401), (402) and (403) of the Federal Law No. (3) of 1987.

The provisions of this law On Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions (Law of Evidence) govern evidence in civil and commercial disputes in the UAE.