Businesswoman fined Dhs100,000 for bribery

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A businesswoman who offered Dhs100,000 to a bank employee to help her obtain a Dhs250,000 loan must see through her punishment, the Appeals Court has ruled.

The Asian defendant, 34, wanted to swindle the loan in the name of an Emirati woman. She presented counterfeit documents to the Pakistani employee, 28, in June and offered to bribe him to get things done.

She counterfeited copies of a passport and Emirates ID for the Emirati woman, forged a loan application form, a salary certificate, a salary transfer certificate, a bank statement and a Dhs100,000 cheque.

She noted on the documents that the Emirati woman was working at a municipality. She then duplicated a municipal seal that she used to fake the salary certificate, according to Bur Dubai Police Station records.

She confessed before the police. Prosecutors asked for a tough penalty. The Criminal Court jailed her for one year plus deportation and a Dhs100,000 fine. She appealed the ruling. The Appeals Court upheld it. In prosecution records, the employee revealed he got in contact with her a year ago when the latter was working at another bank. During Ramadan, she showed up at his counter inside the bank in question.

“She claimed she had a client who wanted to open up a bank account and get a personal loan. I told her the client should come with required documents. She claimed the client was in Al Ain and unable to come.

“I told her there was a branch in Al Ain,” explained the employee. Two weeks later, the businesswoman contacted telling him the client managed to open an account and that she worked at a municipality.

She then said the client was not aware an account was opened in her name and using fake documents. “She told me she wanted a loan in the client’s name,” added the employee. She offered him Dhs100,000.

He alerted the legal affairs section. The management advised him to lure her into a trap. She showed up at the bank with fake documents, filled in bogus data in a loan application form and fixed a bogus signature.

She also filled in bogus data on the cheque and fixed a bogus signature attributed to the client. Police stormed the place and arrested her. The employee said the bank’s surveillance cameras captured the incident.

For her part, the Emirati woman said, “I have no connection with the businesswoman. I have never worked at the municipality and never even applied for a personal loan nor commissioned anyone to obtain it.”