Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A petrol station official forged documents to swindle more than Dhs464, 000. He was spotted stashing a sum in his shoe, a jury heard on Thursday.

The 31-year-old Asian defendant was in charge of a petrol station in Dubai. He was reportedly assigned with running the station’s administrative and financial affairs, prosecutors explained to the Dubai Criminal Court.

His duties included collecting revenues from the station’s fuel sales and proceeds of sales from its convenience store and internal restaurants. He was supposed to hand the sum to a security services company to bank it. He abused his duties to counterfeit 34 deposit slips and 30 sales reports in the station’s e-system. He collected proceeds from employees and prepared slips and reports showing less than the actual amounts collected.

He pocketed the difference then filled in falsified data in the e-system before handing the proceeds to the security services company agent after deducting the difference. He ultimately pocketed Dhs331, 678.

He also abused his duties to forge reports of revenues collected from the sale of recharge cards. He would note in the e-system that a given client returned the card. In this move swindled Dhs133, 000, records read.

By so doing, he harmed the station’s interests, prosecutors explained to the jury and demanded he be awarded a tough punishment. The hearing continues on September 23. On the record, a services supervisor narrated that he received a call from the sales manager alerting him that the defendant’s coworker discovered a Dhs5, 000 deficit in the money he received from the defendant.

Both the defendant and his coworker worked in shifts as officials.  The last one to leave was the one supposed to hand the proceeds to the security services company agent to take it to the bank.

“I reviewed the station’s CCTV footage and saw the defendant snatching a sum of money, stashing it under his clothes and walking away,” said the supervisor, adding that the sales manager summed the defendant.

“He admitted to have stolen Dhs5, 000 on Aug.23 last year. He wrote and signed a confession document and pledged to repay. He paid the next day. The management tasked me with checking earlier transactions he handled.

“I found a Dhs521, 210 deficit in the sums he collected from employees between 2015 and 2018. The management sacked him.” The defendant’s coworker said, “CCTV footage showed the defendant hiding a sum in his shoe.”

During prosecution questioning, the defendant confessed and added that he was on duty on Aug.25 when he snatched Dhs5, 000 from the proceeds. “The next day the station’s manager discovered the theft. I returned it.”