Al Bayan, 3 November 2021: The President of the Court of Appeal in Dubai has announced issuing bounced cheques is still a criminal offence.

They made the announcement following confirmation about the implementation of amendments to the Commercial Transactions Law and the decriminalisation of cheques without a balance.

These amendments do not cancel the criminalisation of giving a cheque in bad faith.

Articles 401, 402 and 403 of Federal Law No. 3/1987 have been repealed.

Under the amendments, the current criminalisation in the Penal Code related to issuing a cheque without an appropriate balance has been abolished, except for in four instances.

These are cheque fraud, cheque fraud by giving an order to the bank not to cash the cheque without right, withdrawing the entire balance before the date of issuing the cheque, intentionally complicating the drafting of the cheque or deliberately signing it in a way which prevents it being cashed. For full story, click here.

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