Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Ehab Ata, Staff Reporter

The Criminal Court of Dubai on Monday heard the first session of a case in which a public employee, African, 41, is accused of falsifying five “Cease of Search” certificates in complicity with other two, one of them is his colleague, but in a different department.

The major suspect’s colleague stated that the first asked him to help him issue “Cease of Search” certificates for some persons, including the second suspect, against a sum of money. He initially rejected, but after several attempts from the major accused, he agreed to issue the certificates in return for Dhs15,000. He printed the certificates on official papers belonging to a government department with false data that do not belong to those persons. He also forged signatures belonging to officials who are responsible for issuing those certificates. He handed over the certificates to the first accused and received Dhs15,000 from him.

The first defendant confessed that he received Dhs25,000 from the second defendant against the certificates. He gave Dhs15,000 to his colleague and kept the rest for himself, the Court heard.

Recently, a number of people on Saturday filed complaints with the police station against Yogesh Ashok Variava, 36, Indian, the owner of Royal Luck Foodstuff LLC, stating that they were victims of fraud by Variava. The latter reportedly bought goods without paying for them.

They said they were exposed to fraud after Yogesh purchased food and medical supplies against cheques for that, but they found out later that he sold the goods to a third party and fled the country, after stealing goods worth nearly Dhs6 million, on an Indian repatriation flight on May 11 from the capital Abu Dhabi to Hyderabad. The owners of the goods lodged complaints with the Bur Dubai Police Station after they had found out that they had received dud cheques.

People said that they are not the only ones, but he cheated a large number of people and some had not realised that he had escaped. “He took advantage of our confidence and trust to promote goods as required, so we did not mind to receive the value of goods in cheques, which gave him the opportunity to commit these crimes,” they added.