Policewoman used forged sick notes

DUBAI // A policewoman used forged sick notes to take holidays from her job, a court heard yesterday.

The officer, 24-year-old Emirati IS, denied 17 counts of forging medical leave certificates in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance yesterday. Her alleged accomplice, the 23-year-old Indian cleaner TJ, denied the theft of 22 such certificates from the Sharjah Medical Centre between March and October last year.

The court heard that colleagues of IS at the Dubai Forensic Sciences and Criminology department had grown suspicious of the amount of leave she was taking and sent an inquiry to the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry told the Dubai Police General Head Quarters that the medical certificates were not valid. IS claimed in the notes to be suffering from a blood disorder.

An investigating officer told the court that when questioned IS confessed. The captain said that IS had said that in 2010 she asked a doctor at the Sharjah Medical Centre to provide her with a sick leave note, but he refused saying she was not in the clinic's jurisdiction.

"She said that as she was leaving the clinic she was called by TJ who informed her that he could provide her with as many certificates as she needed and she agreed," said the officer.

The officer said that IS agreed to pay TJ between Dh50 and Dh100 for every certificate.

"She said that the certificates written in Arabic were written by her and the ones in English were done by the cleaner who she would instruct what to write," added the captain.

IS was said to have led police to TJ. Sharjah CID said they found five certificates in his possession when they caught up with him at a different clinic.

IS and TJ will return to court on February 22.