Dubai: A bank clerk has lost his appeal and will be jailed for five years for conspiring with a fugitive against a businessman and embezzling Dh6.5 million from the latter’s account.

The 22-year-old Pakistani clerk, who worked at the bank and his countryman, who worked for Du, conspired against the Afghan businessman, who had opened a bank account and deposited Dh6.5 million in it before leaving for his country in March 2014.

The clerk and the Du employee forged an application bearing the businessman’s details and obtained a new SIM card in his name. Then using that SIM card, they contacted the bank and gave the businessman’s details to change his PIN and activate the phone banking service [for elite clients] before they wired Dh6.5 million to another account.

In March, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Pakistani clerk of forgery and embezzlement and sentenced the accused to five years in jail and fined him Dh1 million.

The defendant appealed the primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to have his punishment reduced.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm rejected the defendant’s appeal. The accused, who had pleaded not guilty, will be deported following the completion of his punishment.

The other suspect remains at large and police are still searching for him.

The Afghan had the shock of his life when he discovered that his Dh6.5 million deposit had come down to Dh11,000 while he was abroad.

In September 2014, the victim was still in Afghanistan when he failed to withdraw cash using his ATM card and he failed to do the same using the online banking service.

He also failed to communicate with the bank using his UAE SIM card.

When he called from his Afghan number, the bank’s call centre informed him that his account had been active and that money had been transferred to other bank accounts using his phone banking service.

The victim immediately informed the bank that he had not activated the phone banking service and then reported the matter to the police.

Investigations revealed that the 22-year-old clerk and Du employee forged an application bearing the businessman’s details and obtained a new SIM card in the Afghan’s name. Then they contacted the bank, posing as the businessman, changed the latter’s PIN, activated the phone banking service and embezzled the money.

The businessman said he flew back to Dubai once he was alerted that Dh6.5 million had been missing from his account.

“According to investigations carried out by the bank and the police, I was informed that someone had impersonated me, activated the phone banking service and embezzled my money. The culprit had obtained the replacement SIM card from Ajman,” he testified.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.