Dubai: A woman supervisor, who swindled Dh375,000 from her workplace by using forged receipts of utility bill payments, school fees and housing rent, has been jailed for six months.

A Jordanian internal auditor at a laboratory, where she worked, discovered dissimilarities in a number of receipts that the Portuguese supervisor had presented to claim her child’s schooling allowance in 2015.

The internal auditor noticed discrepancies in the serial numbers of receipts that the woman had obtained from the school and provided to the laboratory to reimburse what she had paid for her child’s tuition.

She was entitled to allowances for her housing, child’s schooling and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority bills as per her contract, said records.

When the auditor visited the school, the management notified him that the receipts were forged and that they had not issued those receipts for the tuition of the child, who had already been transferred to another school.

Further auditing of all receipts provided by the Portuguese to the laboratory revealed that she had embezzled more than Dh375,000 from her workplace.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Portuguese defendant of embezzling and forging tens of receipts that she used to swindle her workplace and pocket the money for herself. The accused forged 44 Dewa receipts to embezzle around Dh32,000, 40 school tuition receipts to embezzle Dh123,000 and five rent receipts to embezzle around Dh220,000 between 2011 and 2015, said records.

According to the primary ruling, the workplace’s civil lawsuit was referred to the Dubai Civil Court. She will be deported after serving her jail term.

The defendant pleaded not guilty in court.

The internal auditor testified that he discovered the forgeries shortly after he visited the school to check if they had issued the receipts.

The workplace’s general accountant said the accused was fired instantly after the embezzlement was discovered.

The defendant was cited as admitting to prosecutors that she embezzled the money by using forged receipts.

The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 12 days.