Expat embezzles air miles worth over Dh1.4 million with fake accounts in UAE

Dubai - The alleged wrongdoings ran between 2017 and 2019 and were reported at Al Rafaa police station.

An expat is facing fraud and forgery charges after he allegedly embezzled over Dh1,440,000 worth of air miles from an airline.
The Court of First Instance heard how the 35-year-old Asian man signed up to the airline's business rewards programme with 24 fake corporate accounts on the airline's website. He used travel tickets of the customers of the company he worked for to wrongly avail of 9.2 million air miles.
He is accused of forging e-documents and e-fraud.
The alleged wrongdoings ran between 2017 and 2019 and were reported at Al Rafaa police station.
The security officer-in-charge at the airline said: "As I was running a check of the travel tickets, I came across several accounts belonging to corporations signed up at our business rewards programme. The air miles were deposited in those accounts. The corporations were unregistered or cancelled business entities."
By looking further, the officer found that the taxes - on the tickets purchased off those air miles - were paid with the defendant's credit card. "He racked up Dh1,440,884 worth of air miles," she told the investigator.
During the probe, 1,306 pdf files (airline tickets and receipts) were seized for possible relevance to the case. As many as 236 other pdf files (airline tickets and receipts) were also found and used for possible relevance.
The defendant admitted the charges during the interrogation.
He will be sentenced on August 12.
mary@khaleejtimes.com 

• Dubai