The court sentenced him in absentia to five years.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A global investment company accountant who swindled Dhs193, 089 will spend one year behind bars and pay an equivalent fine, a jury ruled.  

The Asian defendant, 39, worked at the company tasked with handling matters of business partners, issuing receipts, cashing cheques and banking money. He committed 20 electronic swindling operations.

He received Dhs106, 189, embezzled it and registered transactions in the accounting system as postdated cheques. Moreover, he received Dhs86, 900 and declined to deposit it in the company’s bank account. In prosecution records, a Jordanian internal audit section manager testified that the fraudulent activities came to light after one of the partners returned to the company to apply for changing the name of his company.

The concerned employee notified him he owed the company a sum of money because he had deposited a postdated cheque. The partner said he never presented such a cheque and that he paid the accountant by cash.

He insisted he even kept the receipt with him. The management told him to bring it. The receipt showed it was issued by the accountant who had received the cash from him but registered it as a postdated cheque.

“From this I noticed the defendant concealed the incident by counterfeiting data in the e-system,” said the manager. The management reviewed all earlier transactions he handled and discovered he embezzled more money. “The defendant confessed during workplace questioning then wrote a confession document and fixed his signature on it. He returned some Dhs91, 179 and promised to bring the remaining Dhs101, 910.”

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced him in absentia to five years and ordered him to pay Dhs101, 910 plus a fine worth the embezzled sum.  During a retrial on Mar.18 he denied forging and using forged electronic documents.

He contended that the money he embezzled was less than Dhs106, 189. However, he acknowledged declining to deposit the Dhs86, 900 in the bank account. The Dubai Criminal Court has reduced the jail term to one year.