Dubai official jailed for embezzling Dh224,500 with forged fuel receipts

Dubai - The man signed a written acknowledgement of those wrongdoings.

A man, who embezzled Dh224,500 by forging fuel purchase receipts while working with a government entity in Dubai, has had his six-month jail term reduced to three months upon appeal.
The appellate court upheld the fine worth Dh224,500, which was imposed by a lower court.
The Court of First Instance had convicted the 41-year-old Emirati employee of embezzlement of public funds, forgery, and use of forged documents. He was then sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay a Dh224,500 penalty. The man filed an appeal against the primary ruling.
During internal probe at his workplace, the accused claimed it was his hard financial condition which pushed him to commit misappropriation of the cash, and he pleaded for leniency.
The man signed a written acknowledgement of those wrongdoings.
According to public prosecution records, the defendant had been assigned with inspecting paid parking zones and overseeing the work of other inspectors. He was then entrusted with a vehicle and fuel allowance. Instead of using his card to purchase his work trips fuel only, he had some petrol stations workers use it on other vehicles, for which cash would be paid. He would then collect that money.
However, while running the auditing of the transactions in August 2015, discrepancies were discovered in receipts presented by the defendant for reimbursement claim. "Those receipts led us to go through the old transactions he had made and we found he had been manipulating the bills and using forged receipts since early 2013," an auditor told the prosecutor.
The ruling can be contested at the Court of Cassation.
mary@khaleejtimes.com