Petrol station staff accused of embezzlement 

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) A petrol station employee, who allegedly embezzled more than Dh31,000 while temporarily managing the station, has been charged with forgery and embezzlement of public funds in the Court of First Instance.

The alleged financial irregularities committed by the 38-year-old Filipino happened from September to October last year when the manager was away on annual leave.

The man confessed to the auditor in writing that he sent the money over to his sick mother back home. That written acknowledgement was produced with other documents to the Public Prosecution as evidence.

According to prosecution records, the defendant was temporarily placed in charge of a shop belonging to the petrol station which sells tyres, batteries and auto oil and other auto parts. He abused his post to gain access to the electronic system of the station and tampered with the revenue figures and thus managed to embezzle Dh31,500.

An Indian auditor testified that the defendant was assigned with collecting the revenues of sale and handing them over to the staff of a local bank on a daily basis. He embezzled Dh7,355 of the Dh8,000 that was left with him to handle the expenditure of the shop.

The accused was suspended from work pending an internal probe and the auditor was assigned with running an inventory on all the merchandise in the shop and what was sold when the accused was in charge and what was put into record as revenues in the same period. The auditor found out that there was a deficit in the revenues totalling Dh31,500.

It became clear that the accused sold tyres and other services without putting the transactions on record and embezzling the money. Some of the merchandise was missing which meant he embezzled it or sold it without putting the revenues on record.

He would at other instances tamper with electronic data and increase the revenues on payments by credit cards and decrease the revenues on payments by cash and embezzle the difference.

The accused was also supposed to keep the receipts and invoices of the sales but the auditing team could only find two invoices.