Duo jailed for embezzling bakery’s Dhs18.2m

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A transactions clearance official and a countryman embezzled Dhs18.2m belonging to a Dubai bakery. A jury on Tuesday jailed them for a total of six years.

The Arab official, 50, and his countryman (an employee in the IT department, 33) duplicated the stamp of a human resources ministry to commit forgery on an e-Dirham document, letters and invoices attributed to the ministry.

They also counterfeited a cash deposit slip they attributed to a commercial bank in Dubai. The official presented the counterfeit documents to the bakery as alleged proof that he deposited the Dhs18, 200, 000 in its bank account.

They thus abused their positions which entitled them to make deposits and payments of behalf of their employer. They doctored deposit receipts and bank statements to hide the embezzled amount, investigations showed.

The official embezzled the Dhs18.2 million and spent some on paying off the employee who worked in the information technology department for having helped him conceal the crime. The incident came to light in November 2017.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced the official to five years in jail and the employee to one year after which they will be deported. Two Asian accountants (56 and 25) who allegedly abetted the crime were referred to the Civil Court.

On the record, the victim’s German business partner, 70, (the bakery’s managing director) said the official was in charge of running the bakery’s business and dealing with government bodies including the human resources ministry.

The official and the IT employee worked at the bakery’s office in Al Karama while the Asian men worked in the accounts section of its warehouses in Al Quoz. An audit team discovered irregularities in the company’s account.

The managing director revealed that an auditor obtained a statement from the bank different from that presented by the official and by double checking it detected a huge difference in amounts between the two statements.

Days after that a fire gutted the office where the official worked. Investigations revealed the official was behind the arson in a frantic bid to conceal evidence –an incident over which he was sentenced to three years behind bars.

The fire was put out and a suspicious deposit slip of Dhs911, 000 recovered in the debris. The managing director explained that he hired an auditing company which confirmed an embezzlement of Dhs18.2m took place.