Mother of cancer patient jailed in Dubai for Dh188,000 medical fraud

Dubai - The case dates back to April 29, last year, and was registered at Al Muraqqabat police station.

A 28-year-old Nepali housewife, who misused her friend's child's insurance card and Emirates ID to get her own daughter admitted to a hospital, has been sentenced to one month in jail by a Dubai court on a fraud charge.
A 33-year-old Indian woman, who is accused of aiding and abetting in the fraud and misuse of her daughter's documents, received the same penalty. Both women were ordered deported by the Court of First Instance.
The case dates back to April 29, last year, and was registered at Al Muraqqabat police station.
An administrative officer at the hospital said that the Nepali woman came with her daughter on the day of the incident. "The daughter had fever and got admitted to the emergency section. It became clear later that the girl had leukemia and needed therapy. She took the therapy sessions until July 2018."
The administrative officer added that they learned later from the medical insurance company that the first defendant used the insurance card and ID of the second defendant's daughter. The legal affairs department at the Dubai Health Authority was then notified.
The two women were summoned. The Indian woman confessed she had handed the documents over to the other woman "out of goodwill". She said she wanted to help her friend as she arrived on a tourist visa with her daughter and they had no medical insurance.
"She claimed before the legal affairs department that she had first given the first defendant the insurance card and ID on April 29 but was not aware that the other woman copied them and used them later for her daughter's medical check-ups. She was shocked to learn that the treatment costs reached Dh188,000 and admitted that the girl was not her daughter," the witness told the prosecutor.
An employee at the hospital said that the second accused went to the hospital on June 25, 2018, and showed passports and Emirates IDs of their family (father, mother and their daughter). "She claimed that the girl getting treatment there was not her daughter. The insurance company then stopped covering the treatment and the hospital took legal action."
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai