Accountant jailed for embezzling funds

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced in absentia an Asian accountant to 5 years in jail to be followed by deportation and fined him Dhs170,000 on charges of embezzling funds that were in his possession and belonged to an establishment in which he worked as a financial officer.

The case dated back to November 2020 when a financial auditor in a government institution discovered violations committed by an accountant on the back of a complaint filed by a new recruit in which he said he had not received an advance that he applied for with the Finance Department.

According to the financial auditor, the internal audit department conducted an investigation into the recruit’s complaint and found that the Finance Department had decided to pay his full salary, which he received through a bank cheque in the accountant’s name because his employment procedures had not been completed and consequently he would not be able to conduct any bank transactions.

The auditor added that internal investigations showed that the accountant, whose nature of work required him to receive and audit invoices from suppliers, arrange for inter-bank and advance-related settlements and granting credit cards, abused his power and embezzled in excess of Dhs2 million through a number of purchases in his favour when he was in home country in Asia.

Separately, the Dubai Criminal Court recently sentenced a Latin American woman to 10 years in jail to be followed by deportation and fined her Dhs50,000 on charges of importing 55 kilogrammes of cocaine inside her suitcase. The defendant alleged that the suitcase belonged to another person in her home country and she knew nothing about what it contained.

The case dated back to last November when a customs inspector suspected the content of a visitor’s suitcase and asked her to pass it on the x-ray baggage scanner.

The inspector stated that when he found that the suitcase did not look normal, he searched it and found a jacket in it, which contained a substance suspected to be cocaine.