DUBAI // A man has admitted stealing Dh150,000 from his employer to pay for surgery for his mother, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Wednesday.
“But I returned the money, your honour,” Pakistani defendant KE, 31, said to the presiding judge.
Prosecutors charged him with stealing from Techno Engineering, in Jebel Ali Free Zone, saying that on December 17 last year he took the money after all other employees had left for the day.
The Pakistani said he had seen where the accountants kept the money in safes and where they kept the keys.
“There was a lot of cash inside of the safe,” he said. “I grabbed some without even knowing how much it was, I kept it in a drawer in my desk at the company and left. The next morning I came to work and, after working hours, I took the cash and went to Abu Dhabi.”
One of his colleagues called him, he said, asking him to come into the office and bring his passport. The defendant lied, saying that his passport was seized by a car rental office, before he headed to the airport to fly back to Pakistan. However, he was arrested at the airport with the cash in his possession.
He awaits a verdict on March 11.
salamir@thenational.ae
