A man who stole more than Dh600,000 from a local bank after applying for a loan using forged documents will spend three years in prison.
The 28-year-old Indian man worked for the bank and, in Dubai Criminal Court this month, denied charges of forgery, use of forged documents and fraudulently obtaining Dh635,000 from Mashreq Bank.
A second defendant, a 37-year-old Pakistani man, remains at large and was found not guilty of aiding and abetting.
Related: Fake documents and crooked bank worker led to Dh635,000 loss, prosecutors allege
In April last year, prosecutors said the pair forged a salary certificate from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to show that the Pakistani was an employee there and received a monthly wage of Dh31,750.
The two allegedly used a forged a residency visa and a bank statement issued by National Bank of Abu Dhabi to open an account with Mashreq bank before applying for a personal loan.
"I have done nothing wrong. He gave me the documents when he was applying for the loan," said the Indian defendant in court.
The Emirati bank manager said that after the loan was approved and deposited into the defendant's account, the money was withdrawn before they discovered the documents were forged.
"We were double checking the documents by calling the bodies that issued them and they told us they issued no such letters," said the 43-year-old manager.
"We carried out an internal investigation and questioned the representative. It was strange how fast the application was processed by our employee. He was very tense and avoided answering when we asked him about that and about the whole application."
The defendant will be deported after serving his prison sentence.
