Employee tampers with bills, embezzles over Dh311,000

dubai — A former employee at a transaction service office has been charged at the Dubai Court of First Instance for reportedly embezzling more than Dh311,000.

The court heard that the 48-year-old Sri Lankan national managed to collect the amount after tampering with bills issued from the Department of Economic Development (DED). He has been accused of forgery, use of forged documents and fraud.

His alleged wrongdoings ran from January 2017 for a year.

“I am a co-owner of a company which is into handling the transactions and documents necessary for businessmen. The defendant, who worked for us for six years, was at the human resources section and would take care of the distribution of funds,” the 39-year-old Emirati businessman said.

“After the defendant’s resignation, an accountant brought me an original bill, which was issued from the DED. The bill, which was settled by the accused, bore an amount which was lower than what we had paid.”

That prompted an internal probe into the transactions and bills covered by the defendant while on the job. It transpired that he tampered with bills on many occasions.

“We hired an accountancy expertise office after requesting copies of all the bills settled by that employee. We realised that he embezzled Dh311,688, to which he confessed.”

A 38-year-old British partner corroborated the businessman’s statement. “When we confronted him with our findings, he kept quiet first but later confessed. He said he would type the receipts he would submit and alter the amounts before pocketing the difference.”

The trial will continue on

March 8.