Two Malaysian visitors, a man and a woman, have been sentenced to five years in jail by a Doha Criminal Court for using counterfeit credit cards to pay for their purchases at local outlets.
Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported on Monday that the court also ordered their deportation upon serving their sentence. The court confiscated the counterfeit credit cards used in the crime.
The two defendants came to Qatar from Malaysia with a number of counterfeit credit cards. The man admitted having 16 cards and the woman 20, aiming at buying expensive luxury items such as jewellery, watches and other items of international brands, and pay for them through the counterfeit cards.
The woman tried to pay for her purchases at outlets at Villaggio Mall through the cards  but the machine did not accept the payment. Officials at the outlets notified police, who arrested the woman and her partner.
An official from a local bank gave testimony that a number of failed payment attempts through the counterfeit cards were registered by the bank while two processes were conducted successfully.
The accused woman and her accomplice admitted they paid for the hotel a sum of QR8,530 through one of the counterfeit cards. Also, two purchases were conducted successfully through the same cards.
The woman told the investigators that she was having a difficult time in Malaysia, where a man told her she can take counterfeit credit cards and go to Qatar to pay for luxury goods. He also promised her that when she comes back to Malaysia, he would buy the items from her and pay off the debts of her father.