Waiters tamper with orders and cheat restaurant customers

Dubai: Two Filipino waiters have pleaded guilty to cheating customers by making them pay for food items they did not order, against forged vouchers, and pocketing the money.

Prosecutors charged the waiters, 31-year-old P.I. and 25-year-old J.D., with stealing Dh8,010 by forging vouchers.

"I am guilty… we pocketed the money. Your honour, we are sorry for what we did. Please hand us a lenient judgment so we can return to our families," argued P.I. when he defended himself before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.

J.D. also pleaded guilty and told Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad: "I am guilty your honour and I am sorry."

The Public Prosecution charged the Filipinos with theft, forgery and using forged food item vouchers.

The restaurant's Indian assistant director testified that the defendants admitted that they used their colleague's card to access the system unlawfully, cancel food orders then pocket the money. "The waiters were allowed to take down the customers' orders, punch it into the system and collect the bills. They were not allowed to enter the system and cancel orders or reduce prices of items. When I confronted them with the restaurant's reports, they admitted that they used their supervisor's (who had access to the system) access card to tamper with the prices and orders," added the assistant director.

A verdict will be heard next month.