Employee tampers with bills, embezzles over Dh311,000 in Dubai

Dubai - His alleged wrongdoings ran from January 2017 for a year.

A former employee at a transaction service office has been charged at the Dubai Court of First Instance for embezzlement of more than Dh311,000.
The court heard that the 48-year-old former Sri Lankan employee managed to unlawfully collect the amounts after tampering with bills issued from the Department of Economic Development (DED).
He has been accused of forgery, use of forged documents and fraud.
His alleged wrongdoings ran from January 2017 for a year.
"I am a co-owner of a company which is into handling the transactions and documents necessary for businessmen. In addition, we are in charge of communicating with government departments for renewal of licences, residency visas and other services. The defendant, who worked for us for six years, was at the human resources section and would take care of the distribution of funds allocated for such purposes," the 39-year-old Emirati businessman said. "After the defendant's resignation, an accountant brought me an original bill, which was issued from the DED. The bill, which was settled by the accused, bore an amount which was lower than what we had paid."
That prompted an internal probe into the transactions and bills covered by the defendant while on the job. It transpired that he tampered with bills on many occasions. "We hired an accountancy expertise office after requesting copies of all the bills settled by that employee. We realised that he embezzled Dh311,688, to which he confessed when we called after him and showed him those receipts. The accused acknowledged in writing to our lawyer and we presented his confession to the accountancy expert. We complained against him at the Bur Dubai police station and presented a thorough report detaining what he had done."
A 38-year-old British partner corroborated the businessman's statement. "He resigned suddenly and that was when we found out about the financial irregularities. When we confronted him with our findings, he kept quiet first but later confessed. He said he would type the receipts he would submit and alter the amounts before pocketing the difference. The man confessed claiming he needed the cash." According to the witness, the employee forged those receipts and falsely attributed them to the DED.
The trial will continue on March 8.
mary@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Dubai