Dubai employees jailed, fined Dh146,000 in mobile phone scam

Dubai: What began as a lucrative order for 35 iPhones ended with betrayal, a vanished fraudster, and two trusted employees behind bars.

A Dubai court has sentenced two Asian employees to a month in prison, fined them Dh146,000 the full amount lost, and ordered their deportation, after convicting them of conspiring with a fugitive scammer to defraud their employer, a mobile phone shop owner.

According to court filings, the scam unfolded when the fugitive entered the store posing as a customer looking forward to buying dozens of iPhone 15 Pro Max devices worth Dh146,000. Seeing an opportunity, the shopkeeper prepared an invoice and handed the cash to his two employees, instructing them to source the phones from nearby stores since the stock was not available in-house.

But instead of fulfilling the order, the employees turned over the cash to the fraudster outside the shop. The man promised to pay them a share, Dh50,000 for one, Dh20,000 for the other, and disappeared. 

Hours later, when the shopkeeper pressed for the phones or the money, the employees admitted to handing over the cash but claimed the man would return with payment after evening prayers. The phones never arrived.

Realizing he had been duped, the owner demanded to be shown the handover site. At the base of a residential building, he understood the extent of the deception and alerted police.

Investigators tracked the scheme through testimony, WhatsApp messages, and the employees’ eventual confessions. 

Both admitted to striking a deal with the fugitive in advance and splitting the money, though they too were left empty-handed when he vanished.

The Dubai Misdemeanor Court concluded that the employees had colluded in the theft, noting that they “breached their employer’s trust” by participating in the ruse. Their punishment, prison, a fine, and deportation, reflects the seriousness with which UAE courts view workplace fraud.