Dubai: A woman says she has been hiding from the police for the past three years over bounced cheques which her boss used to pay the rent on his office.
Her boss fled the country soon after taking her cheques.
Concepcion Casimiro Mesina, a 40-year-old secretary from the Philippines, said that she has been living here for the past 14 years and had a proper job until she met her new boss.
“I was introduced to my new Irish boss through a mutual friend who asked me to quit my job and to work with him to establish a company in Dubai,” she said.
Mesina said that her new boss, identified as A.M. was planning to establish a construction company in Dubai and he asked her to get the required documents processed.
“I applied for a trade licence in his name and I did all the work for him but when he decided to rent the office he showed the real estate company cheques issued from his home country which they refused to take,” he said.
She said that her boss told her he was having his resident’ visa processed so he needed her to write cheques for him and he would pay her back.
“I trusted him and I gave him my cheque book, he used four of them to pay Dh100,000,” she said.
She said that shortly after that he fled the country leaving her to pay his office rent although the offices were never used by his company.
“I have tried since that time to contact my boss in his country but he never takes my calls,” she said.
She said that her family in the Philippines have also tried to contact him but he has never responded.
“I managed to use all my savings to pay the first two cheques which amount to Dh50,000 but that is all I have,” she said.
She said that the other two cheques bounced as she did not have enough funds in her account.
“I was not able to cancel the cheques or to do anything because the bank refused to cancel the cheques.”
They said I was responsible for them, she added.
Mesina said that she has been hiding from the police since 2010.
“I’m living in different places in friends’ houses in Sharjah and Ajman and have been hiding from the police for the past three years,” she said.
“I tried to explain the matter to the real estate company from whom my boss rented the office but they said it was not their issue and we have to pay,” she said.
She said the office has now been rented to someone else.
Mesina said that she is afraid of going to jail.
“I’m scared to death of getting arrested. I did not rent the office and I’ve been cheated by my new boss,” she said.
She said that when she was establishing the office she was still on the sponsorship of her old company who filed an absconding case against her at the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.
“I’m doing odd job in different places in order to survive,” she said.
Mesina said she cannot hide from the police for ever but she is afraid of surrendering to them.
A police official advised that hiding will only add to her problems.
“She should surrender herself to police in order to get her cases solved,” the official said.
Gulf News tried to contact A.M. but got no response.
