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28 March 2024

Asian nurse steals Dh1.25m from hotel

(FILE)

Published
By Eman Al Baik

A healthcare coordinator at a hotel allegedly stole Dh1.25m that was handed to her as petty cash funds over eight years, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

DM, 55, Filipina was first appointed as a nurse and in November 2007, was promoted to the position of a healthcare coordinator and was in charge of carrying out medical checks and healthcare issuance and renewals. To help ease her task, her employer used to hand her Dh10,000 as weekly petty fund.
 
The accountant of the hotel suspected two transactions forwarded by DM in March for two employees who had already resigned in November.
 
Checking all transactions processed by DM since she was assigned to do this job in November 2007, it was found out that she had forged a total of 9,195, medical fees payment receipts.
 
“The department suspected two transactions that the accused submitted for two employees who had resigned in November, 2014. She also submitted a health card renewal for those ex-staff,” AY, 59, Egyptian accountant told investigators.
 
“Checking transactions that she had forwarded to the department, it was found out that she submitted a number of payment receipts that were issued by Dubai Municipality clinic for the same employee and for the same type of transaction,” he said.
 
The hotel management launched an administrative investigation and the accused admitted to increasing the amount from Dh110 to Dh210. She also admitted to changing pictures of employees so that she could use one receipt more than once.
 
Auditing all transactions that she had processed since November 2007, until March 12, it was found that she stole a total of Dh1,258,620 by forging 9,195 receipts for medical check and health card renewals.
 
The accountant told investors that the accused was handed over Dh10,000 per week to pay for medical check and health card issuance and renewal fees.
 
The accused admitted to embezzling an amount she estimated by Dh500,000. She also admitted that she forged receipts to cover up for stealing the amounts that were in her custody.
 
The court will reconvene on July 5.