Telco workers swindle Dhs953,000

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Two sales executives of a telecom company counterfeited documents to swindle 142 mobile phones that were used to incur Dhs953,680 in unpaid bills, a jury heard on Wednesday.

The Asian defendant, 30, and his colleague, 26, were working at the company’s outlet inside a trading centre in Al Rifa’a area when they committed the crimes between Jan.2016 and Jan.2017, prosecutors explained.

They had been tasked with promoting smartphone data plan packages to individuals and companies, filling out forms and selling the products to customers. They abused their duties to defraud the company.

They faked SIM cards and mobile phones application forms, processed bogus transactions and uploaded the counterfeit documents in the company’s e-system. They sold out 157 SIM cards and 142 smartphones.

They thus abused their eligibilities to access the telecom company’s e-system, forge transactions and documents before they sold out smartphone data plans to individuals and companies for their personal gains.

The incident came to light after 36 customers complained against receiving bills for phone numbers they did not own. The Dubai Criminal Court adjourned the hearing till October 16.

In prosecution records, an Emirati auditor said the internal audit section received several complaints from customers saying that there were phone numbers in their names which they did not actually apply for.

“Investigations revealed all related transactions were processed using the usernames and passwords of the defendant and his colleague in the telecom company’s outlet inside the trading center in Al Rifa’a area.

“Documents attached to applications such as salary certificates were altered photocopies while others were entirely fake. We tried to contact the supposed applicants’ workplaces and failed,” said the Emirati auditor.

23 mentioned companies where the supposed applicants worked did not exist, two others were situated in the Free Zone area while others had different names and contact numbers. They used counterfeit trade licences.

In some transactions applicants’ signatures differed from those fixed on their identity cards.  An audit report showed the defendant caused Dhs654, 490 losses to the company while his colleague Dhs299, 190 losses.

During workplace questioning, the defendant said he was in touch with a man who habitually supplied him with names of applicants. He would process transactions without examining the documents or demanding applicants to come.