Dubai A bank sales manager has been accused of conspiring with 10 people to issue 72 credit cards for bogus clients based on forged papers in a Dh1.5 million embezzling case.

The 39-year-old Pakistani sales manager was said to have agreed with his two countrymen, a 38-year-old man and a 23-year-old security guard, in forging papers in the names of 72 bogus clients and submitting those papers to the bank to issue credit cards in May.

The trio were also believed to have colluded with a Pakistani woman banker and seven men, two Indians and five Pakistanis, to use forged papers of bank clients and process credit card applications, said records.

A senior executive at the bank’s investigation department was believed to have received the complaint of a client who alleged that he had been issued a credit card without his permission or request.

After further investigation by the bank’s concerned department, according to records, it was discovered that the sales manager had processed more than 70 credit cards based on forged papers in cooperation with others.

Police interrogations led to the arrest of the 39-year-old sales manager and 10 other people.

Prosecutors accused the 39-year-old suspect, 38-year-old jobless man and 23-year-old guard of forging official papers that they used to apply for credit cards for 72 bogus clients to embezzle Dh1.5 million.

The eight remaining suspects were charged with aiding and abetting the trio.

The 39-year-old suspect pleaded guilty and admitted that he had embezzled the money when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday. “I did not forge any papers,” he told presiding judge Urfan Omar.

The 10 other suspects pleaded not guilty.

The bank executive told prosecutors that the alleged embezzlement was discovered after a client’s complaint.

“In his complaint, the client said a credit card had been issued in his name without his request or permission … and Dh38,000 had been spent from it. The client informed us during our inquiry that he had met a banker [one of the suspects] and provided him with his personal papers when he applied for a personal loan. Further interrogations exposed that the credit card had been processed based on forged documents,” the bank executive told prosecutors.

The trial continues.