Dubai: An employee, who obtained a stamp from a print house after posing as a doctor and forged medical prescriptions to get drugs, was jailed for one year on Thursday.
The 23-year-old Jordanian defendant, A.M., approached the print house claiming to be a doctor registered with the Dubai Health Authority [DHA] then he obtained a medical stamp in May 2014 from the printing firm.
Later he used the stamp to forge medical prescriptions that he provided to pharmacists to purchase controlled medicines so that he could have access to drugs and mind-altering substances.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted A.M. of forgery, impersonation, using forged documents, possessing and consuming mind-altering substances.
According to Thursday’s ruling, a Yemeni warehouse supervisor, M.M., was jailed six months for aiding and abetting A.M.
“The defendants will have to pay a fine of Dh250,000. The two accused will be deported following the completion of their punishments,” said presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lay in courtroom three.
A.M. confessed to all his charges except the accusation of impersonating a doctor.
“I did not pose as a doctor,” he told the court.
Court records said the Jordanian logged on to the DHA’s website and printed out six medical prescriptions that he forged by stamping them with the fake doctor’s stamp. Then he used the forged prescriptions to purchase tramadol and meprobamate.
An anti-narcotics police lieutenant said an informant alerted them that A.M. had been forging medical prescriptions and using them to obtain drugs and promote them among others.
“The Jordanian accused was detained inside his car in Springs area during a sting operation. Two pills were found in the back trunk. We also seized a medical stamp that bore a doctor’s name and six empty papers of a medical clinic with the same doctor’s name. Upon confronting him, A.M. admitted he forged the medical prescriptions so he could buy controlled medicine from pharmacies. M.M., who was present then, was also arrested. We searched the latter’s house and confiscated seven pills of a mind-affecting substance,” said the lieutenant.
Thursday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days
