Kuwaiti doctor sentenced to 5 years, fined KD345,000 for salary fraud
Court upholds jail term to doctor for unlawfully receiving full salary while living abroad
Dubai: A Kuwaiti criminal court has rejected an appeal from a physician sentenced to five years in prison on charges of embezzling public funds after investigators found he had been drawing a full salary while living abroad and absent from his post for years, according to Al Rai Arabic daily.
The court also upheld a fine of 345,000 Kuwaiti dinars and ordered the doctor’s dismissal from his job. Prosecutors said he collected about 115,000 dinars in unearned wages over a five year period.
The case began after the Health Ministry’s legal department uncovered that the doctor, employed at a government hospital, had not reported to work for five years while residing outside the country, yet continued to receive his salary with the collusion of another employee.
A subsequent criminal investigation confirmed that the doctor had been living overseas throughout that period, according to immigration records.
