Man jailed for one year over Dh117,000 bribery in Dubai

Dubai - Court ordered his deportation after serving his jail term and payment of a Dh117,000 fine and another fine of Dh150,000.

A Jordanian man, 25, who offered Dh117,000 bribe to a public employee in return for unlawful favours, has been sentenced to one year in jail by a Dubai court.
The Court of First Instance found him guilty of bribery charge and ordered his deportation after serving his jail term and payment of a Dh117,000 fine and another fine of Dh150,000. The employee, a 21-year-old Comoros Islands passport holder, was handed equal penalties.
According to public prosecution records, the first accused offered the bribe to the public employee, who was one of the customer service staff at a petrol station, which is in contractual relation with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). According to the agreement with the RTA, the two sides had been linked by an e-system, under which the petrol station can process some services including registration of cars.
The first accused solicited the help of the employee, his colleague, and sent him copies of 13 vehicle licences on WhatsApp so that those cars could get permission for 50 per cent glass tinting, even though the employee had not the power to process such transactions. The second defendant was accused of abusing his post to seek bribes and go out of line of his duties.
His unlawful favours were by accessing the electronic files of 13 vehicles, whose numbers were sent to him by his accomplice, and then issuing permits for full glass tinting (front, back and side). Even though that excessive tinting was in violation of the enforced rules and conditions, the second defendant granted his accomplice the unlawful special favours and issued him new licences for the cars with the excessive tinting after seeking Dh9,000 on each.
Both worked for the same company and used to even work at the same branch in the past.
In addition to bribery, both were charged with forgery and use of forged electronic documents, criminal complicity and gaining unlawful access to an e-system.
The case unfolded between September 11 and 27, 2017.
A police lieutenant said they received information about the first accused. "Our information was that he would seek permits for 50 per cent car tinting issued from the RTA for money. That much tinting is not allowed unless for very specific cases and within special procedure."
The lieutenant told the prosecutor: "We had our secret source get in contact with that accused. We arrested him red-handed at a shopping centre in Al Qusais after meeting our informant and collecting Dh15,000 (which was marked by the CID officers) from him and delivering the new car registration licence (that cited a new and excessive glass tinting percentage)."
mary@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai