Emirates employee admits to stealing Dh77,000, blames airline

The man confessed to stealing the money but quoted an Arab saying that 'unguarded money teaches one to steal'.

DUBAI // An Emirates employee admitted stealing more than Dh77,000 from the airline but claimed it was the company's fault for failing to secure the money.

“As Arabs say, unguarded money teaches one to steal,” M?B, 30, wrote in a confession submitted to the Criminal Court yesterday.

The Emirati was not present at his trial, but wrote in his confession that he used the money to pay his rent and credit-card debts.

“I was looking for someone to help me financially, the banks refused to and my work wouldn’t give me a loan before I finished three years of employment,” the confession states.

“I tried to make some money by purchasing discounted tickets for my relatives then selling them on but this was not enough for someone supporting a family, so I thought of another way to get money.

“The office lacked surveillance cameras and its security measures were very weak so I figured that if money went missing, the only person who would be blamed was the manager, who had previously been asked to install cameras.”

On February 4 about 10pm he visited the airline’s office and told security guards he needed to print a couple of visit permits for a friend.

But instead he opened a safe where visa fees were kept and stole Dh77,595. When he left, the security guard became suspicious.

“He returned five to seven minutes later but I didn’t see him carrying any permits,” recalled N?K, 27, a Nepali security guard.

The next hearing was scheduled for September 15.