Receptionist charged for deleting Dh1.1m of traffic fines

A Dubai court hears an Emirati receptionist at Dubai Police traffic fines division accepted nearly Dh600,000 to delete traffic fines.

DUBAI // A receptionist at Dubai Police's traffic fines division accepted nearly Dh600,000 to delete traffic fines worth over Dh1.1 million for a number of vehicles, a court heard today. The 23-year-old Emirati employee, S A, was charged with accepting bribes worth Dh593,860 from his five co-defendants, including a police sergeant and a federal police officer. The five other defendants, including Emirati police sergeant K S, 23, and Emirati Federal Police lieutenant F T, 26, were all charged with offering S A bribes to delete fines worth Dh1,187,720. They were also charged with aiding and abetting a crime. S A and an Iranian defendant S J failed to appear in court today, while the remaining defendants all denied the charges before presiding judge Hamad Abdel Latif of the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. The crime was discovered after complaints were raised at the traffic section about fine exemptions being given out on a preferential basis. Deputy chief of traffic police, Lt Col Saif Muher al Mazroui, told public prosecutors the complaints became so frequent he ordered an investigation into fine exemptions. Lt Col al Mazroui's audit revealed a large number of fines had been exempted or deleted from the system without payment being processed, prosecution records show. A police major in charge of the traffic fines division told prosecutors the infractions were found to have been committed using access passwords belonging to three officers at the traffic department - two of whom were not in the office at the time the exemptions were filed. Further investigation found the exemptions were made on three different computers, including S A's computer. After questioning, S A confessed and said he made a deal to delete fines for half the price of the violations. He told investigators he had hacked into the system using the passwords of the officers. The court adjourned the case to September 30. [e-mail]