Dh930,000 fraud at Dubai telecom firm, staff fakes forms for phones, services

Dubai - Two runaway accomplices have also been charged.

A telecom firm's sales executive has been charged at the Dubai Court of First Instance for allegedly forging application forms to obtain smartphones and mobile services worth at least Dh930,668.

From December 2015 to March 2016, the 42-year-old Filipina employee reportedly faked e-data and forms for 96 smartphones and 96 SIM cards, prosecution records showed. Two runaway accomplices - a 28-year-old Nepalese and a 36-year-old Indian man - were also charged for their alleged involvement.

The manager of the special auditing section at the telecom firm said during the investigation that the Filipina employee was in charge of receiving customers' applications for phones and SIM cards, Internet connections and other services.

She was given access into the firm's e-system to go about her daily duties, the manager added.

However, in 2017, they received complaints from 10 companies, claiming that SIM cards and smartphones had been issued in their name even though they had not applied for them and had not even received any unit.

"By going through the applications filed in the name of those companies, we found that as many as 96 lines and 96 phones were issued to them. The main accused was the one who processed them all," he said.

Based on the internal regulations within the telecom firm, no application should be approved and run before all documents are submitted along with the application, the manager explained.

"However, the applications pertaining to the complaints had attached documents. The companies denied having presented them. Those same customers also denied that the signatures on the disputed applications were theirs," the witness said.

A case was registered at Bur Dubai police station.

The three defendants are accused of fraudulently obtaining telecom services, forgery, theft and criminal complicity.

The trial will continue on February 18.

mary@khaleejtimes.com