Dubai policeman accused of forging sick notes for Thailand trips

DUBAI // A policeman bought bogus sick notes for Dh200 each so he could travel to Thailand, the Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

Emirati R A, 30, is charged with forgery and use of forged documents. He was not present in court to enter a plea.

Prosecutors said the defendant had been the subject of an internal investigation after missing a number of days off work, which he provided doctors’ notes to cover for his absence.

R E A, 28, an Emirati police investigator, said when he compared the dates of absenteeism with stamps in R A’s passport, he found he had been in Thailand during these times.

R E A said that from April 30 to May 9, then from June 5 to 10 last year, the defendant was out the country despite the fact that he had called in sick.

“After this was found out, we had all his sick leave checked and we discovered that most of the notes were fake. We contacted him but his mobile was switched off, which forced us to send a patrol to his station to bring him in,” he said.

R E A said R A confessed he had bought doctors’ notes that were officially stamped, but had the name and dates left blank.

Prosecutors told that court that the same handwriting had been used to fill out all the fake notes. Also, they were written in Arabic, whereas most doctors use English.

The next hearing will be on March 10 to summon the defendant.