Dubai: A residency sergeant has been accused of abusing his authority and forging more than 68 e-transactions to embezzle around Dh324,000 while he was stationed at the Dubai International Airport.

The Emirati sergeant, who worked for the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs [GDRFA] at the airport offices, was tasked with different GDRFA transactions such as issuing travel permits, cancelling residency, removing travel bans based on absconding reports, collecting fines from illegal workers and residents, collecting fees for entering and exiting the country and carrying out the iris scan.

The sergeant was said to have misused his authority and siphoned off Dh271,000 in proceeds of nearly 68 e-transactions that he was commissioned to carry out as part of his job at his duty station before October 2016.

According to records, the sergeant abused the login credentials that he had and accessed the GDRFA’s e-system to forge tens of transactions and kept the fees with himself.

He used to collect the fees himself rather than directing clients to go to the bank branch at the airport to pay the fees.

The sergeant was also said to have embezzled Dh53,000 in deposits paid for absconding reports, deportation fees and fees paid to list sponsors.

An Egyptian businessman was also believed to have paid the sergeant Dh10,000 in kickback to help him obtain a receipt that he had paid Dh104,000 in residency fines without actually paying it. The act enabled the Egyptian to exit Dubai and re-enter as a business partner in a trading company.

Prosecutors accused the Emirati sergeant of abusing office [as a former sergeant at GDRFA], forging e-transactions and using those forged transactions and accepting bribes.

The Egyptian businessman was accused of bribing the sergeant, aiding, and abetting him in the e-forgery.

When the two suspects showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance, they entered a not guilty plea.

A Palestinian resident testified to prosecutors that he visited the airport’s GDRFA office to get a residency transaction done for his maid.

“Upon visiting the counter where the suspected sergeant was stationed, the latter asked me to pay him the fees in cash … he then asked me to wait. I called up my acquaintance at the GDRFA while waiting and he told me to meet him up to discuss the sergeant’s request. I went to my acquaintance and there I was asked to cooperate with the GDRFA officials to have the sergeant apprehended in a sting operation. Shortly, after finalising the transaction and paying the suspect, he was arrested,” said the Palestinian.

Further interrogations revealed that the sergeant had taken bribe from the suspected businessman to record in the GDRFA system that the Egyptian’s residency fines had been paid when they were not.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi adjourned the hearing to July 16 for the lawyers to prepare their defence arguments.