Businesswoman jailed for Dhs100,000 bribe

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A businesswoman who offered a Dhs100,000 bribe to a bank employee to obtain a Dhs250,000 loan has been incarcerated for one year and fined Dhs100,000.

The Asian defendant, 34, wanted to swindle the loan in the name of an Emirati woman. She presented counterfeit documents to the Pakistani employee, 28, in June and offered to bribe him to get things done.

She forged copies of a passport and Emirates ID for the Emirati woman, counterfeited a loan application form, a salary certificate, a salary transfer certificate, a bank statement and a cheque worth Dhs100,000.

On the documents she claimed the Emirati woman was working at a municipality. She then duplicated a municipal seal that she used to fake a salary certificate. Records showed she confessed upon arrest.  Prosecutors demanded a tough penalty.The Criminal Court jailed and fined her and ordered that she be deported after serving the penalty. She has appealed. The Appeals Court has set Sept.29 to look into the case.

On the record, the employee said he had got in contact with the defendant a year ago when the latter was working at another bank. It was in Ramadan when the defendant showed up at the employee’s workplace.

“She claimed she had a client who wanted to open up a bank account and obtain a personal loan. I told her the client should come with required documents. She claimed the client was in Al Ain and unable to come.

“I told her there was a branch in Al Ain,” explained the employee, adding that two weeks later, the defendant contacted telling him that the client managed to open an account and that she worked at a municipality.

The defendant then told the employee that the client was not aware an account was opened in her name and using fake documents. “She told me she wanted a loan in the client’s name,” added the employee. The defendant offered to give him Dhs100,000 to process the transaction. He told her to give him some time. He immediately alerted the bank’s legal affairs section. The management advised him to lure her into a trap.

They contacted police. The employee contacted her pretending to have accepted the offer. She showed up at the bank with forged documents, filled in bogus data in a loan application form and fixed a bogus signature.

She also filled in bogus data on the cheque. Police stormed the place and arrested her.