Dubai: A businessman has been jailed for six months for offering a Dh30,000 bribe to a Labour Ministry inspector to lift a ban on his four companies.
The 35-year-old Indian businessman, V.A., was said to have offered the Emirati inspector a bribe to abuse his position and remove bans that had been imposed earlier on his companies.
The Dubai Court of First Instance also fined the accused Dh30,000.
Presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat said V.A. will be deported after serving his jail term. The defendant had pleaded not guilty.
Court records said police arrested the defendant in a sting operation after the inspector accepted Dh9,000 as part of the bribe from V.A.
The money will be confiscated, according to Monday’s ruling.
The Emirati inspector told prosecutors that he had known the businessman since 2009 as he owns and manages four companies. “In September of last year, the defendant phoned me one afternoon and asked to meet him outside office. I apologised and told him that I could not do so. When I asked him why he wanted to meet, he claimed that there were four bans against his companies. He offered to pay me Dh20,000 to help him lift the ban. I pretended to agree and immediately informed my supervisor. We informed the police. I pretended to the businessman that he had to increase the amount. Then I asked him to send me the name of the banned companies via SMS,” said the inspector.
After obtaining prosecutors’ permission to arrest the defendant in a sting operation, police raided the location where V.A. offered the bribe to the inspector in Al Qusais.
The defendant was cited admitting before prosecutors that he offered bribe to the inspector to lift the four bans.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
