Gang of three amass Dh500,000 issuing fake sick certificates

abu dhabi — A nurse and two other men have been accused of forging hundreds of sick certificates for workers after taking money from them.

Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance was told how the Filipino nurse working for a private hospital in Abu Dhabi could issue forged sick leave notes to people who were brought to her by an Emirati man and his Asian driver.

The gang of three was charging each person Dh50 for a day’s leave, Dh100 for two days and Dh300 for those wanting to take rest from work for many days. Investigations suggested that the group had collected about Dh500,000 from the illegal business given the fact that they were issuing over 450 forged sick notes monthly.

Official court documents said the nurse was illegally using medical documents having Abu Dhabi health authorities’ logo to write on the sick notes which she stamped with a doctor’s seal and signature before handing them over to various people.

Police investigations suggested that the Emirati was the one getting people who wanted sick leaves and could forward their details to the nurse to write up the sick note. The Emirati was allegedly promoting the illegal business through posting messages about their service on social media where he could get a lot of people wanting to take leave from work.

“After talking to the customers, the man would send across the details of the worker and the number of days he or she wants to take off from the work and send through a text message to the nurse’s phone,” said a prosecutor.

“The nurse then wrote and signed the sick notes and handed them over to the Emirati’s driver for delivery.”

The three denied charges of forging official documents when they appeared in court. The trial was adjourned until February 22.