DUBAI // British diplomats have lost almost £1 million after paying out money to what they believed was an established UK foreign office supplier.
An amount of £870,572 (Dh4.98m) has now been written off by the UK government after a “fraudulent payment” was made to a bogus company, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) annual report revealed.
British police are investigating the payment of £889,840, which was made in June last year, of which £19,268 has been identified as having been paid in the UK and Ireland.
The Foreign Office, with the help of Britain’s National Crime Agency and Lloyds Bank, has tracked down £3,251 in the UK and £16,017 in Ireland, of which £12,235.69 has been recovered.
The remaining £870,572 has been frozen in accounts in Dubai, the report said, although it also revealed that the government department had written off the loss because it was not common practice to recover funds lost to fraud.
“Although police investigations are continuing, we have provided for this loss in its entirety because of the lack of the precedence of successfully recovering these types of funds,” the report said.
“Internal controls have been reviewed and action taken, where appropriate.”
A spokeswoman at the British consulate in Dubai confirmed there is an ongoing police investigation but was unable to give further details of the fraud. However, she said that no FCO staff have been implicated in the investigation.
“The funds in question have been frozen by the relevant authorities and subject to a successful outcome following a police investigation, we expect to recover them,” the spokeswoman said.
“We take fraud very seriously and have subsequently reviewed and amended our processes to ensure they are as robust as possible.”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Crime Agency said: “We can confirm that we supported the process and engaged with Dubai Police on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”
*This article has been changed from its original version after the British Embassy in Dubai informed The National that it was not British diplomats in Dubai that transferred the money to a bogus company. The National has found that the money was, in fact, transferred by Foreign and Commonweath staff from elsewhere and the money was only found and frozen in bank accounts in Dubai.
dmoukhallati@thenational.ae