Pair are accused of offering Customs bribe

‘They sought to clear shipment with Dh40,000’

DUBAI // Two men offered Dubai Customs inspectors a Dh40,000 bribe to free up a shipment of musical instruments that had been confiscated on arrival, a court has heard.

On May 17 last year, an Indian manager, 45, and his business partner, 46, offered the bribe and asked inspectors to stamp the shipment papers at Jebel Ali Port, prosecutors said.

They also asked the inspectors to write a note saying that the two vehicles containing the instruments had passed inspection when they had not.

An Emirati inspector, 27, said he asked the pair for the shipment documents.

“They said it was with the company’s representative. Shortly after, one of them approached me and my colleague and presented documents that had a list of items different to those in the vehicles,” said the inspector. The pair then spoke to each other before one of them offered the inspectors the bribe, he said.

“I informed my supervisor at once. He asked me to play along and he called the police,” said the inspector, who was told by police to arrange a meeting with the defendants the next day to arrest them.

“I met him at 2pm the next day and he was arrested when he handed me the money.”

The manager told prosecutors that the inspector had asked for the money and threatened to frame him if he did not pay.

“It was then when I told him, ‘ Let me ask the company’s manager’, who, when I told him about the incident, refused to pay,” he said. “But after the inspectors’ persistence, my manager agreed.”

At Dubai Criminal Court on Sunday, the two defendants denied a charge of bribery.

The next hearing is scheduled for March 13.