Four get 10 years in jail for Dhs3.2m theft

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Four employees of a metal works company who counterfeited documents and walked away with Dhs3,178,000 were on Tuesday jailed for ten years.

The Arab defendants – a trade manager, 41, development manager, 31, engineer, 39, and designer, 42 – will also pay a Dhs150,000 fine each after which they will be deported, the Dubai Criminal Court decided.

They forged purchase orders attributed to their company. The development manager’s wife who withdrew the sum while aware it was stolen fled abroad on Jun.24 last year. She was sentenced in absentia to ten years.

The incident happened in January 2016 and came to light on April 12 last year after the company’s accounts department stumbled on irregularities in the company’s financial records and informed the management.

In prosecution records, the company’s 64-year-old Egyptian managing partner testified that the accounts department director contacted him about various irregularities committed by the first three defendants.

The trio had illicitly ordered for large quantities of glass (from a supplier) to be allegedly delivered to projects the metal works company was handling. The purchase orders bore the signature of the above trade manager.

Investigations revealed the development manager and the engineer also abused their powers and ordered a storekeeper and a workers supervisor to endorse more documents pertaining to the bogus transactions.

The Indian storekeeper and Filipino supervisor revealed the items were not entered in the store nor delivered to the mentioned sites. They said they signed under the duo’s orders and feared losing their jobs if they refused.

The managing partner summoned the development manager. “He appeared scared and perplexed as he spoke. He acknowledged the incident but argued he did not benefit from the transactions,” said the partner.

An internal investigation revealed that the defendants made purchase orders under the name of a shell company set up two months prior to the incident. None of the items on the orders were actually bought or delivered.

“The engineer on being confronted confessed to his role. The trade manager returned from abroad and confessed as well,” explained the managing partner.   They made the orders under the name of the shell company.