Employee cleared of fraud charges, freed

Ehab Atta, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court on Tuesday acquitted an Arab employee, 30, of fraud charges. The defendant allegedly claimed he was in a position to take out visit and residence visas for others in return for money and took Dhs4,500 from the victim.

The victim stated that she had a friend who was interested in getting a visit visa for her husband.

While the victim was coincidentally using Facebook, she saw the defendant’s ad, in which he claimed he was able to organise visit, employment and residence visas in return for money.

When she communicated with him, the defendant told her that the visa would cost her Dhs4,500 and gave her a mobile phone number of another person, who allegedly was a residency and foreigners affairs officer.

The victim called the officer who told her about the procedures and required documents. She gave him all the required documents and after a while, the officer asked her to pay the agreed on amount but she refused to give the money before the visa was issued.

Several days later, the officer sent the victim a copy of a visit visa on WhatsApp. She went to a typing office to enquire whether the visit visa was valid but the employee at the typing office told her he could not do so because the visa was issued by the Jebel Ali branch.

At this point, she filed a complaint against the person who alleged to be a residency and foreigners affairs officer and who was helping the defendant in the crime.

She then felt suspicious about the validity of the visa and consequently she visited a branch of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs to check the visa. It turned out that the visa number was correct but belonged to an Asian person and not the person in whose name the fraud was carried out.

In a separate event, the Dubai Criminal Court sentenced a maid to three months in jail to be followed by deportation on theft charges.

According to the official records, the defendant was working as a maid in her employer’s house and was doing the usual cleaning work. On the day of the incident, the victim woke up at dawn to discover that the maid was not in the house. The victim checked the house to discover that a gold necklace worth Dhs5,000 plus Dhs2,500 were missing. She knew that it was the maid who stole the necklace and the money because she ran away.

Earlier, the victim gave the maid a mobile phone to call her relatives and friends. The victim found the mobile but discovered that the maid had deleted all messages and contacts on the phone before she ran away.