Dubai: A marketing manager claimed he needed urgent medical leave because he had cancer to be able to abscond after having reportedly embezzled Dh500,000 from his employer using forged documents.

The 44-year-old Indian suspect, A.K., who records said fled the country in 2010, was said to have forged 15 purchasing receipts and embezzled Dh500,000 from his company that organised nightlife events.

Prosecutors charged A.K. with abusing his former job as a marketing manager and forging 15 unofficial documents [purchase receipts] which he handed to the finance department, collected the money and disappeared.

Meanwhile, a 41-year-old Indian woman, P.G., a media consultant, was accused of aiding and abetting A.K.

“No, I am not guilty. I did not assist him at all,” argued P.G. when she appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

According to the charge sheet, the fugitive suspect committed the crime between 2007 and 2010.

The company’s Indian human resources manager testified: “One day the defendant requested urgent medical leave because he claimed he had cancer. As soon as he left, we discovered that there was some unfinished business deals which he had struck with another advertising company. A.K. was in charge of following up on our company’s advertisement campaigns. We asked the other company’s representative who informed us that the purchase receipts that were submitted by the defendant were forged. The advertising company’s management also informed us that they did not collect any money from A.K. We were shocked when we realised that the defendant had embezzled the amounts of the forged purchase receipts that he submitted to our finance department.

“He also mentioned on the receipts that he used to pay the money to P.G. Afterwards we also discovered that P.G. had no connection to the advertising company and did not work for them. The suspect had also submitted two forged receipts in which he claimed that he held a business deal with another company… later we discovered that that company did not exist,” he claimed to prosecutors.

The advertising company‘s Indian owner testified: “The other company’s manager asked me to hand them a copy of a voice advertisement which he claimed we were supposed to have produced for them. I informed him that my company was not tasked to do such an ad. When he sent me a receipt, I discovered that it was forged.” The trial continues.