Banker accused of stealing Dh1m from client

The Dubai Court of Cassation has set June 1 as the date for issuing a ruling in a case involving a bank employee of Arab nationality, in which he is accused of embezzling about Dh1 million from the account of one of the bank’s clients,  the ‘Al Ittihad’ Arabic language daily newspaper reported.

The employee is accused of exploiting and misusing his position in the bank to steal about one million dirhams from the account of a client.

The Courts of First Instance and Appeal had sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of Dh980,000, which the accused appealed.

The case came to light in July 2013 when the accused, then working in the customer service department of a bank, was charged with embezzling Dh980,000.

The prosecution said the accused was able to commit the crime by opening another account in the name of the bank account holder. The accused took a personal loan in the name of the client without his knowledge  and then withdrew the money.

Documents of the case indicate that the employee admitted to stealing the money from a client’s account and spent the money on himself.

The prosecution said the defendant had falsified the personal finance application form in the name of the bank client and the form for opening current account to get an ATM card and four financial documents for transferring money from the account of the victim.

The victim said he discovered the embezzlement when he came to know that the bank had two accounts in his name. He was also surprised to find he had taken one million dirhams as loan from the bank.
The victim added that he had not received any letter or message from the bank, informing him about the opening or existence of the second account.

A woman director of the bank said an investigation was launched after receiving a complaint from the client. It was found that a person had withdrawn money from the client’s new account via the bank’s ATM.

The Court of Cassation delayed the case to June 1 to consider the appeal of the accused employee against the verdict of the lower courts which had sentenced him to five years in prison and fined him the stolen amount of Dh980,000.

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