AD Police arrest bank employee trying to flee with Dhs600m

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi police arrested a bank employee, who had stolen Dhs600 million from the bank and was making an attempt to flee the country.

The suspect had pinned hope that within no time he was going to become a millionaire. He was fully sure that none could prevent him from becoming a rich person. He had left no stone unturned to keep himself away from the clutches of the police. He was fully sure that the plan he had made to dodge the authorities was accurate.

He was also keen to make certain he was not detectable with every new programme he adopted but everything collapsed due to a dud cheque of Dhs15,000, which he had completely forgotten.

At the airport, an officer stopped him and told him that he was not allowed to leave the country on the basis of a circular because someone filed a dud cheque report against him.

The suspect attempted to pay the amount in time to leave without troubles, on the pretext that he did not want to miss his trip, but in fact he was scared his plan would be detected.

The officer told him that he had to be forwarded to the Attorney General, where he could settle the matter down with the complainant and pay him the amount there.

A conflict of fears and ideas had stricken his head and almost was to blow it when he was waiting for the arrival of the prosecutor.

At the same time, the electronic teams of the bank supervising authority in Abu Dhabi declared the withdrawal of large amounts from a bank’s reserves. The bank electronically pumped cash to banks operating in the country as soon as the system was opened in the morning.

The bank system gave a warning of the withdrawal of the money. Each time a sum of the reserve was transferred, the system re-issued the warning.

The suspected employee made a report on these unjustified and illogical withdrawals which he submitted to the administration. The administration, in turn reviewed the bank operations but found that no such large amounts were transferred.

The bank turned into a beehive and all the employees were summoned.

The concerned departments examined all the files related to the remittances in search of the imbalance that occurred and caused the withdrawal of more than Dhs600 million.

In less than an hour, it turned out that the transfers were made at night while the electronic system was switched off. As soon as these systems turned on in the morning, the night orders were executed electronically.

It was not difficult to identify the perpetrator, a staff member who had been sacked a few days earlier. The day before, he had asked his manager in a friendly way to return some of his powers to end some of the pending operations.

Because he was one of the oldest employees of the bank and due to his reputation and probity which were beyond suspicion, the manager agreed and returned his powers but for only one day.

The security guards did not have any doubts when he returned to the bank in the evening, because he was known to be a diligent employee, who used to stay late in his office to end his work.

He already finalised the cheque procedures quickly and canceled the legal proceedings and then rushed as quickly as he could to the airport. There he asked about the first departing plane, whatever its destination, to leave the country, following his family, that headed earlier to a country having non-extradition agreement.

He thought he was lucky enough when he found a reservation on an plane taking off in an hour.

He hastily went on, sat in his seat and tied his belt. He reportedly sighed with a smile as he listened to the pilot’s request for passengers to get ready to take off. He closed his eyes, dreaming of the wealthy world waiting for him but was shocked at the voice of a policeman asking him to leave the plane quietly.

He did not expect the concerned authorities could move so quickly to find about the truth and find himself in the grip of justice.

He confessed to his crime, and revealed the names of all who were involved.

The authority supervising banks, in cooperation with the concerned bodies recovered most of the amounts which he transferred on the basis of payments of some goods.