Ex-manager causes Dh2.1m loss to telecom provider

A former sales manager at a telecommunication provider has been accused of intentionally causing losses worth more than Dh2.1 million to his workplace by issuing hundreds of SIM cards and giving devices to bogus customers.

The 45-year-old Indian, who is currently at large, allegedly abused his post at the company to issue as many as 360 post-paid numbers and 923 mobile phones by filling in corporate application forms with false information.

He allegedly faked many signatures on the forms and used his access user name and password to log into the system and save the false data and accordingly avail of the products and services.

He has an accomplice, an Indian workmate (a coordinator), who illegally availed of the services of the plaintiff, thanks to the sales manager.

The former manager has been charged in absentia in the Court of First Instance with embezzlement, causing intentional damage to public funds, illegal profiteering, forgery and use of forged documents, facilitating the wrongful use of the telecom services to others. The coordinator has been charged with aiding and abetting in the above-mentioned crimes.

The wrongdoings took place between March 2013 and June 2014 and a complaint was registered at Bur Dubai police station.

An audit expert said the manager was exposed while they were preparing their report in the beginning of 2015. "We found lots of applications suspiciously processed by the manager because of the bogus names he used as contacts in the forms. Several correspondence letters were detected between him and another person, which led us to believe they were partners."

According to the expert, with all the mobile phones and numbers the manager unlawfully issued, he caused the telecom provider to incur more than Dh 2.1million in losses. They pressed charges against him. But he had resigned and left the UAE in 2015.

Source: Khaleej Times