Travel consultant accused of visa forgery

Defendant admits she forged e-visas for holidaymakers and embezzled Dh64,000

Atravel consultant has been accused of embezzling Dh64,000 by forging e-visas and emailing them to holidaymakers wishing to spend their vacations in Dubai.

The 25-year-old Filipina, C.C., who worked as a travel consultant at a private tourism agency, was said to have forged electronic tourism visas and sent them by email to potential tourists before embezzling the costs in January.

Prosecutors accused C.C. of forging the tourism visa applications, then embezzling the revenues from the agency.

Guilty plea

The defendant entered a guilty plea before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday. “Yes I forged the visas and took the money for myself,” the Filipina told presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat in courtroom three.

According to the accusation sheet, prosecutors said the defendant printed out a number of authentic tourism visa forms [obtained from Dubai’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners’ Affairs online system], made photocopies and tampered with the tourists’ details on them before sending them to potential tourists.

Then she pocketed the money sent by potential tourists, who had paid for the visas thinking they were original.

An Indian business partner in the agency testified to prosecutors that two tourists called them from the Philippines and notified them the visas they had purchased were forged.

“Two of our Filipino clients told us over phone that the two tourist visas they had purchased turned out to be fake. The clients said a local travel agent in their country deals with our agency and that was how they purchased the visas. Our records revealed that C.C. had issued those e-visas. Upon confronting her with the findings, she immediately confessed that she had forged visas and embezzled Dh64,000,” he claimed to prosecutors. A ruling will be heard on May 28.