Staff charged for embezzling Dh420 from ticket cost at Dubai airport

Dubai - He sold a ticket to a traveller for $700.

An employee of a travel agency at the Dubai airport has been charged in the Court of First Instance after he allegedly embezzled Dh420 from a ticket price.
The 33-year-old Kenyan man was working as a customer service salesman whose duties included selling tickets to travellers. However, on October 26, 2017, and while he was on duty at the Dubai International Airport, he sold a ticket to a traveller for $700. He put the transaction on record in dirhams and embezzled Dh420 out of it.
The employee is referred to as a public employee in the public prosecution charge sheet.
During investigation, he admitted that a traveller came to his counter between 4am and 5am. "He wanted a ticket from Dubai to Tashkent and I issued it to him for $700. I collected the money in cash from him and converted it into dirhams at an exchange office at the airport. It was Dh2,520. I deposited Dh2,100 as a price for that ticket in the cash register and kept the remaining Dh420 with me," the employee confessed.
However, shortly later the complainant came back, requested a booking cancellation and claimed a refund as the ticket was wrongly issued to him.
The employee, who took up the shift after the accused, found the money was not registered in dollars. The supervisor was called and then the police. The defendant was caught.
A security officer told the prosecutor the traveller complained to him he had purchased a ticket for $700 a few hours earlier but it was wrongly issued to Astana instead of Tashkent.
When checking their records, the travel agency staff found that the ticket had been issued in dirhams and for a price less than $700. The accused then claimed to them he collected the money in local currency. But as the traveller insisted he had paid in dollars, they checked their surveillance cameras, which showed clearly the traveller was telling the truth.

• UAE
• Dubai