Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

A Gulf employee, 41, working in a telecommunications company, abused his powers and seized 224,295 mobile phone recharge cards worth around Dhs14 million.

The Dubai Public Prosecution referred the defendant to the courts of law on charges of embezzling this huge number of cards, which he gave to his wife and children of her ex-husband.

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According to the official records, the incident dated back to 2016 and 2017 when the defendant, who worked as a sales executive in an Etisalat branch in Deira, partially owned by the federal government, and whose tasks included requesting recharge cards for delivery to customers who wanted to exchange their damaged cards, was summoned for interrogation.

The photo has been used for illustrative purposes. File/ AFP

This was after the number of cards he applied for had been noticed to be far in excess of the cards requested by other branches. An inventory conducted for the cards in his custody showed that the cards he requested were not given to customers but used for himself.

Faced with the charge, the defendant claimed that he put the damaged cards in a carton in the company’s warehouse. The internal investigations showed that he lied. Further investigations showed that the defendant was paid a monthly salary of Dhs17,000, wore a watch worth around Dhs100,000 and had a luxury cars.