3 charged with bilking money from company

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal on Tuesday started hearing a case in which three people were charged with swindling money from a company. The third defendant, an Arab national in charge of the electricity section who was entitled to select bids, submitted fake bids for a tender to be awarded to a certain company.

Asked by the court, the defendants denied the charge levelled against them. The first defendant pointed out that the bidding prices were given to him by the company, while the second defendant said he had nothing to do with the case as he was merely a company employee.

The defendants’ lawyer affirmed that according to the experts’ initial report, the defendants did not cheat the company and there was no harm inflicted on the company which the defendants should be punished for. The lawyer pleaded that the first defendant had been living in the UAE for 30 years and owned a factory, while the third defendant had been living in the country for 25 years and was entitled to bonuses estimated at millions of dirhams.

The lawyer submitted 3 dockets and a defence memo to the court and asked for revocation of the Court of First Instance’s ruling, which sentenced each defendant to 6 months in jail to be followed by deportation.

The lawyer of the complaining company also submitted a memo to which a docket was attached. The court decided to adjourn the hearing till Tuesday, Oct.15.