AUSTRALIAN businessman Matthew Joyce, detained in Dubai and charged with defrauding a company owned by the ruling family over a waterfront land deal, says he expects to know within seven weeks whether he will be jailed.

In his race against the clock, Mr Joyce has successfully argued for the civil case levied against him by listed developer Sunland Group to be heard prior to the Dubai judgment. The case begins in the Victorian Supreme Court today, where Sunland is claiming misleading and deceptive conduct under the Trade Practices Act.

It alleges that Mr Joyce, and a friend from his youth at Geelong Grammar, Angus Reed, duped Sunland into paying one of Mr Reed's companies, Prudentia Investments Pty Ltd, a $14 million ''consulting fee'' to release a waterfront plot to which it had no legal rights.

The plot was in the Dubai Waterfront project, which in 2007 was the world's biggest waterfront development. Mr Joyce and Mr Reed have rejected the allegation. Mr Reed said at no time did he represent that he or Prudentia held an enforceable right to land, and Sunland was aware of that.

Mr Joyce was managing director of Dubai Waterfront, a subsidiary of Nakheel, a company owned by the ruling family. He and colleague Marcus Lee - who is not a party in the Australian Sunland case - were held in jail for nine months in 2009, and have since been on bail in Dubai, with their passports confiscated.

Mr Reed, who is in Australia, has been identified by UAE authorities as a ''fugitive''.

The case may have further fall out as Australia's new extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates, which came into effect in September, has been discussed in UAE media reports in conjunction with the case.

It has been reported the treaty ''boosts the chances of the Dubai Prosecutor's office of recovering $12 million allegedly embezzled from the Dubai Waterfront project by four Australians'', but says prosecutors have not commented on whether they will pursue the extradition of Mr Reed, and another businessman.

Radha Stirling, from the UK-based detainedindubai.org, said the group had lobbied against the treaty when it was first mooted.

''It is a common situation for civil matters to be treated as criminal over there,'' she said. Her group is dealing with 20 cases a week of expatriates falling foul of UAE law.

Sydney Morning Herald report

The Age report

Matt Joyce website