Bank employees get 5-year jail term, Dhs150,000 fine for embezzling money in Dubai

Sohaila Ahmed, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced two Arab bank employees to five years imprisonment followed by deportation and a fine of Dhs150,000 after they had committed forgery and embezzlement of $140,000 from a customer.

The incident dated back to September of 2018, when a bank customer, the victim, had received a text message indicating that $140,000 have been withdrew from his account.

The victim contacted the bank and learned that the money was transferred to the second defendant’s account.

Investigations revealed that before the robbery took place, the victim had once visited the bank to transfer an amount of cash. After his first, the victim was contacted by the second defendant who requested to meet.

Apparently, the defendant forged the amount on the customer’s transaction request, and changed it to Dhs140,000.

With the help of his accomplice, they both managed to transfer the amount by forging the customer’s signature.

The bank’s cashier also testified that the first defendant, who works as a customer service agent, is one of the employees who authorized to issue transfer requests and carry out customers’ information updates, which made it easy for him to forge the victim’s signature and transfer the stolen amount.

The two will now be deported after spending five years of jail-time and pay a Dhs150,000 fine.