Dubai: A woman will spend a year in jail after the Dubai Appeal Court upheld charges of swindling, theft, embezzlement and forgery against her.
The Dubai Court of First Instance had sentenced Tunisian national M.S, 33, to three months in jail in April this year but the Appeal Court has now increased the jail term.
The woman was convicted of embezzling tens of thousands of dirhams from an engineering company by forging the owner’s signature and tampering with cheques and receipts.
“M.S. will spend one year in jail followed by deportation,” presiding judge Eisa Al Sharif said pronouncing the judgement.
Prosecutors had made out a long list of 27 charges against M.S. and accused her of fraud, embezzlement, swindling, and forging cheques and payment receipts among others.
M.S. denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. She claimed the company’s Emirati owner had fabricated the case against her following a labour dispute between them.
The court also referred the engineering company’s civil lawsuit to the civil court.
“When I was taken to the forensic laboratory so that my signature could be compared with the signatures on the forged documents, I was forced to write a confession,” M.S. argued.
Prosecutors said the accused forged the company owner’s signature on several cheques and tampered with the figures written on those cheques such as changing Dh18,000 to Dh118,000 before pocketing the money.
She was also alleged to have forged receipts and collected funds allocated towards salaries, allowances, petty cash for office purposes and other office expenses.
The Emirati company owner, E.A, said the irregularities came to light after he hired M.S. as the company’s general accountant. “A bank teller once noticed a discrepancy in my signature on one of my cheques. When I went to check it, we discovered that she forged my signature. M.S. said it was a mistake when I confronted her,” E.A. said.
Last week’s appellate court judgement remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 28 days.
