Purchase coordinator jailed, fined for fraud

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A realty company employee who forged documents to swindle Dhs501, 553 electronic devices from a supplier has been jailed for two years and fined Dhs150, 000.

The Asian defendant, 29, worked at the realty company as its purchase coordinator. He was tasked with ordering supplies, materials and services required by the company’s managements and sections, records showed.

He abused his fiduciary duties of securing the company’s money and interests to illicitly order for 107 electronic devices comprising mobile phones, laptops and accessories worth Dhs501, 553 between Feb.4 and 19.

During interrogations, he confessed to have forged purchase orders worth around Dhs480, 000. He said he was facing financial constraints and he was too broke to meet obligations his family owed to other people.

“Those people were pursuing and disturbing us,” he contended. “I was planning to return the money within week since I expected money transfers from my homeland.” He begged his employer for time to refund.

Prosecutors demanded a tough penalty. The Criminal Court has sentenced him to two years behind bars to be followed by deportation. It slapped him with a Dhs150, 000 fine and ordered all forgeries be confiscated.

In prosecution records, the defendant was on duty when he misused the workplace email to contact the electronics supplier. He faked four purchase orders analogous to those issued by his workplace’s e-system.

He noted that payments would be effected after one month. He opened up a fictitious email address attributed to a ghost employee allegedly working at the realty company as an official in its finance department.

He used this email to send purchase orders to the electronics supplier. The electronics supplier sent its business transactions account to the defendant’s workplace email. He printed it out and fixed a signature on it.

He stamped it twice using the company’s stamp then resent it to the supplier. The devices were readied. He corresponded with the supplier’s employees, went there and picked up the devices after signing a receipt.

He stamped the receipt using the company’s stamp. During police and prosecution questionings, he acknowledged forgery, use of forged electronic documents, misusing the company’s stamp and embezzlement.