Salesman stole money from employer’s safe

A 45-year-old jewellery sales executive, BKM, allegedly stole Dh150,000, Saudi riyal 150,000, and $13,000 from his employer, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

The owner of jewellery business, SZA, 54, Pakistani resident of Saudi Arabia, testified that he has three employees.

On September 23, he came to the UAE to attend Sharjah Jewellery Show with Saudi riyal 160,000 and $12,100 in his possession.

“I asked one of the staffers to keep the money in the company’s safe which also included Dh320,000. On September 25 I travelled back to Saudi Arabia and returned to UAE on October 1.

“I called BKM and asked him to meet me in front of a bank and to bring with him a cheque book request application. I issued a cheque of Dh200,000 in BKM’s name for withdrawal so that I won’t have to stand in a long queue. He withdrew the amount.  We left together and I dropped him back at the company and went to rest in the hotel.

“After some time, I received a call from company staffers who were crying but did not tell me what is the problem. They just asked me to come to the office. I called IJ, who helps me in my business in Saudi Arabia and who was close to the company, to rush and find out what the problem was.

“IJ called me back saying that he could not know what the problem was. When I arrived at the company, two workers told me that money was missing from the safe.

“Checking the CCTV, we found out that BKM had approached the cameras and then the recording had stopped,” he testified.

Police did not find any evidence of violence in the company and the CCTV showed a staffer putting his clothes on while the accused was in the CCTV control room before it stopped recording. The camera stopped working for two days from September 27.  The recording showed the accused giving the money to the staffer to put it in the safe. When he found that the money was missing from the safe, the staffer started searching frantically while the accused behaved normally as if nothing had happened, according to the records.

An electrician proved that the cameras had been stopped intentionally by cutting off electric wires.

The accused confessed to stealing money and transferring them via two money changers to his account in India. He also confessed that he given a friend a sweets box in which he had hidden a part of the stolen money and had asked him to hand it over to his parents in India,  without telling his friend what was in the box.