Bank staff steals Dh6m from VIP client

A bank superviser allegedly transferred more than Dh6m from the account of a reputed hotel owner to that of a bogus company within two hours, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

RKP,  supervisor  at the Al Shindagha branch of a leading bank, helped an unidentified person known as 'Kumar' to open a bank account in the name of a bogus company and then transferred the money from the VIP client's account via forged cheques issued in favour of the bogus company.

The partners in crime withdrew Dh1.95m from the bogus company’s account. Even as the victim and the bank discovered the fraud. The remaining Dh4.155m were retrieved when another bank employee noticed that there was a suspicious amount of money being withdrawn from the account and he froze the fictitious account.

A lot of planning was involved. The duo changed the client's online account's log in details so the victim would not be able to check his balance online. They also managed to get a SIM card of the prey’s mobile number so that he would not receive messages from the bank about the cheques being submitted and encashed and the subsequent transfer operations.

The 61-year-old victim testified in court that being a VIP client a special the bank appointed a director to manage his account. "On March 22, 2011, I could not log into my account via the internet. I called the director to find out the reason, but as it was at 5pm she promised to check the matter on the following day.

"I could not check with her on the following day, as my mobile was out of service. My account manager arranged to pass me the information via the account of the hotel which I own. She checked whether I issued four cheques of Dh4m each. As I did not issue any of those cheques, I immediately went to the branch at around 9am. I was shocked when she told me that someone else had responded to her call on my mobile number claiming to be me and expressed his approval on processing the cheques. She also told me that already Dh6.105m had been withdrawn from my account via 10 cheques issued in favour of a general trading company.

The bank was able to retrieve Dh4.155m and I was reimbursed the stolen amount. Signature on the cheques were proved forged,” he testified.

His bank account manager PA, 32, Indian, repeated the same testimony adding that an operations officer of the bank’s branch in Burjuman suspected the signature of the client on a cheque valued Dh965,000 and sent her an email to verify it with the client.

"At that time I was communicating with the client’s accountant as I could not reach him on his mobile and knew from the accountat that the client did not issue any cheques. I asked the Burjuman Branch to freeze the transaction.

"Shockingly, after 15 minutes I received a call from the mobile number of the client and the caller of different voice. He claimed to be the client and informed about a cheque of Dh965,000  issued in favour of the general trading company and said he approved the transfer.

"I called back the same number and it was switched off. I logged into the client’s account and found out that large amounts had been transferred by different branches and that I was not asked to verify any with the client." She reported the fraud to relevant officials in the bank,” she testified.

Upon investigation, the bank caught teller supervisor RKP as he had logged into the client’s account via the bank’s system using his employment ID number. The superviser confessed before the prosecution that he had met someone called 'Kumar' and supplied him with a cheque book in the client’s name and his signature so he could forge cheques to process money transfer.

He claimed that Kumar agreed to give him 25 per cent of the amounts withdrawn but later stopped answering his calls.

The Prosecution referred the case to the court in absentia of the suspect without mentioning why the accused is absent.The Court adjourned the case until October 16.

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