Dubai: A supervisor has been accused of abusing his job at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) by embezzling Dh225,000 using falsified fuel receipts, heard a court on Wednesday.

One of the RTA’s departments was said to have discovered several irregularities in fuel receipts that were submitted to them through one of the gas stations in August 2015.

The RTA conducted an internal audit that revealed that all fuel receipts that had been submitted, according to records, were for a car that was being used by the Emirati supervisor [who formerly worked for RTA].

The supervisor was found to have conspired with three attendants at a petrol station where he used to go and give those attendants his petrol card to fill fuel for others, then get falsified receipts to claim the money.

During an internal investigation, the supervisor concerned admitted that he had cooperated with the attendants to fill petrol for other car drivers using his RTA-provided petrol card, and got falsified receipts to make it seem that he had filled petrol for his car and pocketed the money.

Thereafter, the RTA lodged a complaint with the police who apprehended him.

Prosecutors charged the suspect with abusing his job position as an RTA supervisor [formerly], submitting phoney receipts and embezzling Dh225,000 between January 2013 and July 2015.

When he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance, the suspect pleaded not guilty.

“That didn’t happen …,” he told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.

An official at the RTA testified to prosecutors that the management took legal action against the ex-supervisor shortly after he confessed during the internal investigation that he had abused his job position and embezzled the money.

“The investigation revealed that the suspect had misused the petrol card provided to him by the RTA to fill the car that he used to drive during his work shift. He allegedly conspired with the station’s attendants to fill petrol for other car users using his petrol card … and then embezzled the money after submitting the phoney receipts. The internal audit confirmed that the suspect had committed around 1,347 such transactions between 2013 and 2015 for a total of Dh225,000,” he told prosecutors.

Presiding judge Al Shamsi adjourned the case to December 17 for the suspect’s lawyer to prepare his defence arguments.