Duo offer Dubai customs inspector Dh10,500 bribe, face trial

Dubai - Both have been accused of offering a bribe to a public employee, forgery and use of forged document and criminal complicity.

Two men have been charged at the Dubai Court of First Instance for offering a Dh10,500 bribe to a customs inspector at the airport in exchange for overlooking a bogus export transaction of a considerable gold shipment.

Public prosecution records show the duo, including a 30-year-old manager and a businessman, 40, both Indians, offered the bribe money to the senior customs inspector, who is based at the passengers' operation section, Terminal 1, the Dubai International Airport, in return for overlooking whether the quantity of gold they wanted to export is real and if it matched with the bills enclosed with the shipment.

Both have been accused of offering a bribe to a public employee, forgery and use of forged document and criminal complicity.

Prosecutors referred them to trial on a charge sheet, in which they recommended they got the strictest penalty possible as per the law.

The case dates back to March 5.

According to the prosecution arraignment sheet, the manager got a forged purchase receipt (with the help of the businessman) of the gold (over 13kg) valued at $533,624 without settling the payment and without even receiving it in real.

Their scam plan was targeted for the businessman to re-sell the gold in the local market here, make net profits and recuperate the customs fees he had paid when importing the commodities.

The senior inspector told the prosecutor that the manager worked at a gold import and export transaction clearance and he knew him since about four years. "He contacted me on February 19, asking to meet me in person for a matter. I met him at 5:30pm the following day in Abu Hail."

The inspector recounted to the prosecutor how the manager suggested to him the idea of tampering with the quantities of gold shipments he would export outside of the UAE. His plan was to recuperate the customs fees he had paid on those quantities upon importation.

"His idea was to put a real quantity of gold but to replace the remaining with other goods to justify the enclosed receipts. He wanted me to overlook that the shipment was not all gold, upon inspection. He offered me Dh1,000 for every kilo of bogus gold listed in the shipment which I would okay as real and consistent with the (forged) receipts he would bring forward."

Furthermore, the inspector told the prosecutor how the manager lured him by saying that after two months of such manipulations with transactions, he could purchase an SUV from a sole agent here. "He said he saw the 2002 model car I was driving when I went to meet him," the witness said.

The inspector informed his superiors and he later helped the CID officers catch the manager red-handed after 7pm on March 4 right after he offered the bribe at the gold and jewellery section, customs point of the airport's Terminal 1.

The trial has been adjourned to October 21.

mary@khaleejtimes.com