5 appropriate public funds worth over Dhs300,000

Ehab Atta, Staff Reporter

The Criminal Court in Dubai on Sunday looked into the case of five Asians charged with committing 36 felonies between forgery, use of forged documents and exploiting the powers of a job through which they were able to appropriate Dhs357,000 of public funds via fuel cards.

The first defendant, driver, 33, confessed that he stole 18 fuel cards that were being placed on the procurement office at a government entity, where he works. There was no one in the office, so he dared to steal the cards, he added.

He headed a filling station and connived with the rest of the defendants to use those cards to refill cars for amount of Dhs400-500 per day in return for Dhs100 a day as a phone recharge or Salik cards.

Recently, The Fujairah Criminal Court heard a case in which a domestic worker was charged with arson.

According to the official records, the defendant, who worked in her sponsor’s house, brought a lighter and a flammable liquid on the day of the incident and set fire to a cupboard inside a room of the house causing the clothes to catch fire.

The sponsor’s wife rushed to the scene after she saw the smoke and informed her husband. The sponsor brought an extinguisher and put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the room. He then called the police, who examined the place and found the tools used in the crime. They arrested the domestic worker. She was brought to the court of law where she denied the charge levelled against her.

In another case, The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance sentencing an African guard, 26, to 10 years in jail to be followed by deportation after he was convicted of stabbing his wife (aged 27) to death. The defendant was also sentenced to extra three months for attempting to commit suicide after the murder.

According to the official records and the testimony of one of the defendant’s housemates, everything was going smoothly between the defendant and his wife and they were happy about the latter’s new job opportunity.