Dubai clerk jailed for embezzling Dh97,000 worth of VAT refund

Dubai - He tampered with online documents and changed the refund payment way from cash to credit card deposit.

A clerk, who embezzled Dh 97,703, worth of travellers' VAT refund, has been sentenced to six months in jail by a Dubai court.
According to public prosecution records, the 23-year-old Uzbek clerk used to work for a tax refund company at the Dubai International Airport when he abused his post and gained unauthorized access to the electronic system of the company.
He tampered with online documents and changed the refund payment way from cash to credit card deposit.
He replaced the credit cards of entitled travelers with the cards of other individuals. And thus managed to pocket the money.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted him of embezzlement, forgery and tampering with e-data and gaining unauthorized access into an e-system.
He will be deported after completing his jail term as per the court ruling.
He remains in detention.
The financial irregularities ran from February 10 to April 2.
An Emirati general manager told the prosecutor that the transactions run by the defendant were thoroughly checked. "We noticed that several credit cards were repeatedly used. The cards belonged to travelers of different nationalities who applied for refund in cash but were not able to collect it because of their flights."
The defendant would wait until the last day of the deadline to transfer the cash refund into the credit cards.
The clerk was exposed after the administration received a complaint by a traveller that the refund was not deposited in his credit card. "We found out the clerk was embezzling the travellers' money after he made a mistake; He used a credit card which was not that of the client who had sent us a complaint," the general manager said.
The ruling has been appealed.
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai