The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal heard a case in which an Arab bank teller was charged of embezzling around Dhs298,500 from four bank customers by repeatedly forging withdrawal slips without their knowledge.

According to the official records, the public prosecution charged the defendant with embezzling bank customers’ money and forging and using electronic documents in order to get money illegally. The Court of First Instance sentenced the defendant to three years in jail to be followed by deportation.

When asked by the court, the defendant denied all the charges levelled to him, noting that he was in the dark about this incident and did not take any money that did not belong to him from the bank.

The defendant’s lawyer requested the court to allow him to take out a certificate showing the defendant’s movements from the concerned entity, noting that the complaining bank set dates in which the defendant committed the crimes and that the certificate would prove to the court that the defendant was not inside the UAE during the mentioned dates.

The lawyer also demanded that the defendant’s immediate director be summoned and asked about the nature and limits of the defendant’s job. In addition, the lawyer requested the court to obligate the complaining bank to submit the receipts related to the banking operations pertaining to the incident together with the relevant surveillance tapes and official statements of accounts for the four customers.

The court decided to adjourn the hearing to Aug19 and authorised the lawyer to take out the needed certificate.

In another case, a customer service agent at a telecommunications company attempted to circumvent the rules and regulations governing his work, forged official documents, and illegally sold SIM cards and devices to achieve the sales target, which caused his company losses of Dhs870,000 .

Investigations into the incident indicated that the defendant tried to achieve the sales target, but failed. He falsified the requests for the purchase of 180 postpaid SIM cards and 156 mobile devices for fictitious customers illegally, contrary to the system in force within the company. He took advantage of the powers granted to him, entered the system, and made requests for the purchase of customers with incomplete papers that included expired ones without specifying the addresses.