Telco worker swindles iPhone in soldier’s name

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A telecom company’s customer service employee who misused a soldier’s documents to swindle Dhs7, 000 services must see out his punishment. 

The Arab defendant, 41, forged a purchase order for a 32GB iPhone-7Plus worth Dhs3, 400 with a monthly billing plan SIM card. He filled in wrong data in the e-system, showing necessary procedures were taken.

He misused the Emirates ID of the Emirati warrant officer, 32, and faked his signature on the e-purchase order document, stored the bogus document in the system and swindled the iPhone and SIM card. The SIM card incurred a Dhs3, 732 bill. He sold the mobile phone to a mobiles shop in Sharjah. It was then sold from person to person until police seized it with an unsuspecting Pakistani man, police records showed.

By then the officer had already paid Dhs3,116 to the telecom company. He filed a complaint to police. The defendant contacted him apologising and offering to refund if he waived the complaint. He refused.  The defendant confessed before police and prosecutors that the victim came to his workplace to obtain a phone with postpaid calls and internet. He misused copies of his documents to buy an iPhone and SIM card.

However, he denied the charges before the jury. The Dubai Criminal Court immured him for six months plus deportation over forgery, identity fraud, use of forged documents and abuse of duties. He appealed in vain.

On the record, the officer visited the defendant’s workplace at a branch in Dubai and applied to change his package from that of ordinary people to that of soldiers. The defendant asked for his ID and employment card.

“There was a photocopier in his office but he walked out to another in an adjacent room. He returned and handed me my cards. A month later, I noticed that the monthly bill had increased abnormally,” he complained.

“It was supposed to be Dhs250 monthly. The company told me the bill was authentic. The bill increased over the next six months. I went to another branch and learnt there was a phone number registered in my name.”

The number was bought with his authentic documents. The company notified him that an iPhone-7Plus was issued to him with a SIM card and that the bills he was paying were worth call charges related with the iPhone.

He complained to the Bur Dubai Police Station. A vendor at the mobiles shop in Sharjah where the defendant sold the iPhone testified against the latter. The Criminal Court ordered the forged e-document be erased. The Appeals Court upheld the decision.