Dubai: 'Phone addict' steals Dh14.75 million in recharge cards; fined same amount

A woman, said to be a mobile phone addict, has been jailed for three years and ordered to return Dh14.75 million she embezzled from her workplace. A Dubai court also fined her the same amount, after the telecommunications company employee was found guilty of misappropriating the funds to recharge her phone and buy multiple data and calling plans.

The Dubai Public Prosecution detailed her crime in an Instagram post on Monday.

Referring to the woman as Dalal, the authority said she was a supervisor in charge of a store owned by the telecommunication firm. Among her duties was requesting and receiving telecom recharge cards in lieu of damaged ones from the main warehouse of the company.

“She requested large quantities of … cards from the main warehouse … and then misappropriated 244,295 recharge cards in lieu of damaged ones amounting to Dh14.75 million. She used it to top up balances in her personal phone in order to buy various data and call packages for herself as well as her family members. She also distributed the stolen recharge cards among her family members,” the public prosecution said.

After her crime came to light, she was referred to the Public Prosecution, which accused her of misappropriating public money.

In the post titled ‘crime and lesson’, the prosecution said Dalal's addiction to her mobile phone affected her personal life.

The authority said it “destroyed her future” as she stole from her workplace and abused the trust placed on her.

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“She often got distracted because of her addiction to … social media and … (other programmes) throughout the day. It affected her sleep, level of concentration and interaction with the people around her. She became more isolated.

“It seemed as if she had bid farewell to real life and got immersed in the worlds behind the screens and she would prefer to solve her problems virtually instead of facing the reality,” the post said.

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