Ex-staff jailed for defrauding firm of over Dh375,000

dubai — An ex-administrative employee at a laboratory has been sentenced to six months in jail after the court found her guilty of defrauding her workplace of more than Dh375,000.

The 50-year-old Portuguese was convicted of fraud and forgery charges as she was accused of presenting fake tuition fees and tenancy contracts and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) bills she had manipulated with.

The Court of First Instance referred the civil lawsuit to the competent court. It ordered the deportation of the woman after completion of her sentence.

Public prosecution documents show she forged as many as 44 receipts which she claimed were issued from Dewa by falsifying details in the copies — like account holder’s name and number of the residential flat. She then presented the forged documents to the administration where she worked to claim the money and managed to collect Dh32,383.

She was also accused of forging 40 receipts of tuition fees which she falsely attributed to the school which her children attended. Those receipts were worth Dh123,475.

According to the records, she also submitted five forged tenancy

We were running the internal audit in 2015 when we noticed some discrepancies in the payment receipts the accused submitted.” Internal auditor of firm

contracts to her workplace, worth Dh215,500.

“We were running the internal audit in 2015 when we noticed some discrepancies in the payment receipts the accused submitted and claimed were issued from the school her children attended. She had been collecting refunds on their tuition fees. But some of the receipts had inconsistent serial numbers. Since I found the documents dubious, I called the school and learned from the accounting section staff that those receipts were not issued by them,” an internal auditor said.

The auditor visited the school and became doubly certain there had been forgery and manipulation to collect the amounts of money wrongly stated in the receipts.

“After a complaint was filed against her, the accused sent an email to the company owner, admitting to embezzlement and forgery and that her salary was not enough to make ends meet. She suggested several times to him to sort it out through a settlement,” the auditor told the prosecutor.

According to the auditor, the defendant’s wrongdoings had been going on since 2010 and up to January 2016. They lodged a complaint at Bur Dubai police station.

The court ruling remains subject to appeal.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

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