A Bahrain-based banker jailed in Dubai in connection with a $501 million fraud is seriously ill with stomach problems, said a report.

Briton Charles Ridley has been taken to hospital after complaining of abdominal pain, said the report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

"He was taken to a hospital in Dubai because of stomach complications," a well-placed source confirmed.

No other details were available.

Ridley was among five investment bankers handed long prison sentences in April 2011 for defrauding Dubai Islamic Bank in connection with a loan.

The defendants have always maintained their innocence and claimed the loan was paid in full when the bank foreclosed on Plantation Holdings, which was valued at more than $1 billion. - TradeArabia News Service