A Bahraini businessman has lost his final appeal in four separate dud cheque cases.
The Cassation Court upheld jail sentences that added up to 15 months behind bars.
The appellant initially stood trial at the Lower Criminal Court for issuing cheques with insufficient funds, belonging to four different companies he was presumably involved in running.
He was charged with maliciously issuing cheques, which, at the time of withdrawal, bounced due to insufficient funds in the accounts corresponding to them.
According to the Public Prosecution, he committed the crimes in 2019, and three of the cases involved a regional bank, while one involved a well-known Indian bank.
Between July and December 2020, the man was convicted in all four cases, receiving three-year, two-month, two-month and one-month sentences respectively.
The company, in the first case, was a maintenance firm and he was sentenced to a month behind bars and granted a BD100 bail. In 2024, he appealed the verdict at the High Criminal Appeals Court, but lost.
In the second case, the store sold artistic frames and offered glass-cutting services and in September, the defendant was sentenced to two months in prison with BD100 bail. In 2021, he lost his appeal against the verdict.
The Cassation Court refused to hear the appeal since it was presented by the man’s lawyer who had a power-of-attorney authorisation that did not clarify exactly which areas he could represent his client in.
The company in the third case was an old and well-established family business specialised in asphalt, mixed concrete, demolition and construction of buildings and roads. The businessman was sentenced to two months in jail with a BD100 bail in September 2020, but the appeals court in 2024 ruled to combine it with another case.
Finally, in the fourth and biggest case, the company was specialised in swimming pool construction and maintenance and further offered plumbing services.
In December 2020, the Bahraini was sentenced to three years in prison for a bounced cheque, with BD200 bail, and initially lost the right to appeal it at the High Criminal Appeals Court.
However, upon lodging objection in November 2024 to contest the verdict, judges slashed the sentence to one year.
The documents of all four cases do not list how much the cheques were worth or the man’s position in the companies, or how he had the authority to access the firms’ finances.
Although the appeals court lowered his jail time from three years and five months to a total of 15 months, all his attempts to contest the verdicts before the Cassation Court failed.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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