Fraudulent bank employee fined Dhs612,000

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A bank employee who siphoned Dhs306, 000 from a client’s account was on Monday jailed for six months and ordered to repay twice the sum.

The Arab defendant –a customer service employee, 35- committed forgery on 25 cash withdrawal slips, attributed them to the (deceased) Emirati man and faked his signature on each one, prosecutors revealed on Mar.7.

He broke the client’s deposit using a fake application attributed to the client. By Jan.15 last year he had managed to swindle Dhs306, 000. He faced abuse of duties, embezzlement, forgery and use of forged documents.

During Dubai Criminal Court questioning on Mar.11 this year he admitted to all charges and asked “for time to pay back.”

The court imprisoned him for six months, ordered him to return the money and pay an equivalent fine.

On the record, the defendant on Jan.15 last year approached a teller and presented him a cash withdrawal slip seeking Dhs30, 000 from the client’s account. As per the bank’s procedures, the transaction had to be endorsed by a senior teller.

The senior teller –an Egyptian- said, “I asked the defendant to bring the client’s ID. He claimed the client was waiting inside the reception area’s distinguished clients section. I endorsed the transaction and handed him the sum to take it to the client. “I followed him to the reception only to find the client was not there. On confronting him about it he claimed the client received the money from him and left. I doubted the situation and raised the matter to the deputy manager.”

The senior teller and the bank’s deputy manager reviewed surveillance camera footage and saw the defendant stashing the money in his pocket. The day’s footage helped confirm the client did not come to the bank that day.

The management checked his account and came across numerous transactions of small sums of money. The senior teller said he knew the client for 13 years and the latter was not frequenting the bank nor withdrawing small sums.

“We also discovered the defendant broke the client’s Dhs100, 000 fixed deposit. I contacted the defendant and demanded to know why he behaved that way. I told him about the footage. He confessed and promised to refund.

The management recovered the Dhs30, 000 he had just swindled. “I tried to contact the client and failed. I learnt from the Bur Dubai Police Station that the client passed away in Thailand after battling with a disease,” said the senior teller.