Pinay health coordinator faces P15-M embezzlement case in UAE

A United Arab Emirates court on Wednesday heard a case against a Filipina health coordinator accused of forgery and embezzling Dh1.26 million (P15.513 million) from a hotel where she worked.

The Filipina was accused of forging 9,159 health card renewal receipts and embezzling more than Dh1.26 million in an eight-year period starting 2007, Gulf News reported.

But jail wardens did not produce the Filipina, 55, before the Dubai Court of First Instance. She had been scheduled to enter her plea there Wednesday.

Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi adjourned the case until she is brought from detention. The court reconvenes on July 5.

A separate report on Khaleej Times said the Filipina had been placed in provisional detention. It added she was charged with fraud, breach of trust, forgery and use of forged documents.

The Filipina started work as a nurse at a hotel in Dubai and was appointed in 2007 as a health coordinator handling employees’ health files and issues.

Prosecutors accused her of tampering with data in the receipts, changing fees from Dh110 to Dh210 between November 2007 and March 2015.

Auditing

The Egyptian auditing manager of the hotel told prosecutors the embezzlement was discovered when the Filipina produced two receipts of two employees who resigned in November 2014.

“When she submitted those two suspicious receipts, we decided to carry out an inventory. We discovered several receipts that had been replicated. She had submitted photocopies of receipts to renew health cards for the same employee more than once at Dubai Municipality’s clinic," the auditor said.

"Upon confronting her, she admitted that she had forged photocopies of receipts and embezzled money. She confessed that she tampered with names and cost of fees and changed employees’ photos. When I checked with Dubai Municipality’s clinic I found out that they had not changed the cost from Dh110 to Dh210," the audit officer added in the Gulf News report.

The inventory showed the Filipina embezzled more than Dh1.26 million between 2007 and 2015.

"While the suspect was being cross-examined, she claimed that the municipality did not provide her with original receipts but only photocopies… she also alleged that the municipality had started renewing health cards twice per year,” the auditing manager said.

But the Gulf News report cited records showing the suspect admitted during questioning that she had pocketed Dh500,000 only. —Joel Locsin/KBK, GMA News

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