Dubai: A coach and an inspector at a public driving institute have been accused of demanding a Dh900 bribe from an applicant to help him clear a driving test, a court heard on Wednesday.

The Egyptian applicant was said to have repeatedly failed driving tests leaving him unable to obtain a licence from the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai. Once he found a job at a government department and was required to get a licence, he opened a file at the public driving institute, according to records, and demanded to have an Egyptian driving coach to train him.

The applicant started taking driving lessons with his 42-year-old countryman coach and subsequently passed the parking test.

Records said that when the resident was scheduled to sit for the city-driving test, the driving instructor told him that he could help him pass his driving test for Dh900 as he knew most of the inspectors who would test him.

The resident reported the matter to his supervisor and he was commissioned to cooperate with Dubai Police to have the coach and the inspector apprehended in a sting operation.

The Egyptian coach and the 54-year-old Bangladeshi inspector were apprehended for taking money from the resident.

Prosecutors accused the Egyptian suspect of mediating between the Bangladeshi suspect and the resident to help him pass the driving test for money. The two suspect were likely accused of abusing their jobs as public servants and dealing in bribe.

According to the charges sheet, prosecutors said the 42-year-old suspect requested Dh600 in bribe and the Bangladeshi suspect requested Dh300.

The suspects pleaded not guilty and strongly refuted their accusations when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

A police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that the resident alerted them that the suspects had asked him for bribe to help him pass the driving tests.

“The resident alleged that he had failed earlier and that he had to repeat his training lessons … when the Egyptian suspect told him that he could help him pass his driving test if he paid him money, he came and alerted us. We gave him police money [Dh900] that was photocopied to be used as future evidence against the suspects. The two suspects were arrested in a sting operation after they accepted the money from the resident,” he claimed to prosecutors.

The trial continues.