Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A safety inspector who forged for himself an engineering degree has been referred to the Dubai Criminal Court.

The Arab defendant, 28, scanned the stamp of the UAE embassy in Cairo. He printed it on the fake degree on Jul.7. He plucked the embassy’s revenue stamp from an official paper. It bore a stamp and a signature.

He attached it to the fake degree. He prepared for himself the degree showing he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering-Cairo University. He denied in court. His lawyer asked for time. Case continues on Nov.3.

An Emirati corporal revealed the defendant was netted after walking into the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get the degree attested. “He claimed that he got it from someone without knowing it was forged.”

In a similar incident, an unemployed Arab man, 39, forged a Law Degree for himself and attributed it to Ain Shams University in Egypt, showing he obtained the degree through a distance-learning course.

He fixed his photo and a description “Very Good.” The phony degree carried the university’s stamp and signatures of its administration staff, showing it was attested by UAE and Egyptian foreign affairs ministries.

Investigations revealed the defendant made the supposed licentiate analogous to an original one. He then submitted it to the UAE Ministry of Education to get it attested. The ministry’s officials detected the forgery.

An Emirati legal researcher at the ministry said the Egyptian embassy informed them the degree was fake and an official letter from the university confirmed the course through which it was obtained, did not exist. The researcher said they called Al Qusais Police Station and reported the defendant. The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced him to three months in prison. It ordered the suspension of the prison term and warned him not to do it again.

Prosecutors said he was aided by a fugitive accomplice. The defendant denied forgery and use of a forged degree. “I did not,” he argued and appealed seeking to challenge the ruling.  However, the Appeals Court’s jury has upheld.