Abu Dhabi company manager accused of health insurance scam

ABU DHABI // A Jordanian manager forged health insurance documents to save himself thousands of dirhams, the Criminal Court heard yesterday.

M M faked application papers to the Daman health insurance company that purported to show he worked for an Emirati sponsor.

He said his company was in the limited income investor bracket – for companies with less than five employees who earned less than Dh5,000 – meaning that he would only have to pay Dh600 per employee.

In fact, his company fell under the normal investor category as he had seven workers on his books, which meant he would have had to pay Dh3,000 per employee.

A Daman employee testified in court that M M had underpaid a total of Dh13,000 over three years due to the deception.

M M said he presented his documents correctly, that he had been given power of attorney by the sponsor to prepare the documents and he new nothing about the alleged forgery.

The witness from Daman said that the forged documents declared that M M worked as a farmer for an Emirati sponsor. Then, last year, he presented documents that showed his real occupation. The discrepancy alerted the insurance company that something was wrong with the papers, he said.

The alleged Emirati sponsor, a retired army officer, mentioned in the forged documents was also summoned to court.

“I have never known this man,” said the sponsor about M M. “I don’t know anything about this. I had presented an application for an insurance card for my maid, that’s all.”

M M claimed the forgery must have occurred internally between the employees.

After listening to two employees and the alleged sponsor, the court announced that it was unnecessary to listen to defence witnesses.

The verdict will be announced on April 8.