UAE: Dubai court reduces jail sentence for manager who forged Civil Defence completion certificate

A manager and partner of a company specialising in alarm and fire extinguishing systems was (initially) sentenced by the Dubai Criminal Court to one year imprisonment followed by deportation, for forging a building completion certificate. The innocence of the remaining defendants was upheld.

The forged certificate was attributed to the General Directorate of Civil Defense in Dubai and was presented to three other persons in a company contracting with that of the accused.

The Court of Appeal later amended his sentence to three months' imprisonment instead of a year, and deportation from the country on completion of the sentence.

According to the lawsuit papers, the company of the defendant contracted with a real estate company to install and maintain fire systems in a residential building consisting of a basement, a ground floor, four upper floors, a sports club, and a swimming pool.

According to the contract created between the two companies, the defendant's company presented documents related to fire systems — including a building completion certificate issued by the General Directorate of Civil Defense in Dubai — to prove that the work in the building was completed. The procedures for examining fire nozzles were completed by the department's inspectors.

The lawsuit stated that the real estate company entered into a second contract with the company of the defendant to carry out maintenance work for fire systems, as well as to obtain a final certificate of completion issued by the Civil Defense.

The company paid the accused an amount of Dh29,776.

Wanting to keep this amount to himself, the defendant forged a completion certificate by including the building data in an electronic original certificate after manipulating it.

This forged certificate passed from the defendant's company to the contracting company, from where it was handed over to a consultant in charge of the project. It was the consultant who submitted the forged certificate to the Dubai Licensing Agency, which identified the forgery attempt and filed a report on the same.

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