Dubai banker jailed for embezzling, squandering Dh50,000 on personal needs

Dubai - He has been found guilty of embezzlement of public funds.

A bank's legal collector, who embezzled Dh50,000 and squandered it on personal needs, was sentenced to one year in jail by a Dubai court on March 12.
The Court of First Instance also ordered the 45-year-old Emirati defendant to pay a Dh50,000 fine.
According to public prosecution records, the former collector was assigned with paying up fees and fines as well as finalising transactions due on impounded cars at the police and municipality or those left behind by their owners.
He should have presented documents and receipts to the bank that he had paid up the due fees and finalised the transactions with government departments in follow-up on the cars. Instead, he embezzled Dh50,000 he had been given to carry out his duties.
He has been found guilty of embezzlement of public funds. 
The case dates back to June 2010 and was registered at Naif police station.
Another legal collector told the investigator that he was asked by the defendant to be given Dh50,000 towards his work needs. "His duties included finalising transactions and procedure on vehicles, impounded or abandoned, that had been purchased with loans from the bank. After paying the due fines and fees on those cars at the government departments, they could be taken by the bank." The accused claimed to the witness that he needed the money to get the transactions done at those departments.
The witness received verbal instructions from a person in charge at the bank to hand the cash over to the accused. The witness said there was no one around when he gave the money to the defendant in the parking lot of a store in Al Hamriya, Naif.
About three months later, the defendant was yet to present receipts and documents to the bank administration that he had got those transactions done. He also failed to prove he had settled the due fees and fines against those transactions or even return the Dh50,000 amount to the bank.  
However, later when the administration requested the defendant to return the amount, he confessed, in the presence of the witness, that he had spent it on his personal needs. The witness told the prosecutor he heard the defendant expressing his responsibility towards repaying the bank the amount he had taken. He also took up all the blame, denying any involvement of the witness in squandering the money.
The ruling is subject to appeal.
mary@khaleejtimes.com