DUBAI: A bank’s branch sales director who snatched a document for a gang trying to swindle Dhs1.4m iron supports from a trading company landed in court on Thursday.

An Arab manager, 47, deceived the general trading company in Al Rifa’a that a contracting company he was representing wanted to purchase iron supports, the Criminal Court heard.

The company told him to submit a letter of guarantee. The manager’s cohort – an Arab official, 44 – sought the help of a compatriot commercial bank’s branch sales director, 32.

The director snatched a blank headed paper against a Dhs14,000 bribe. He asked a countryman, 32, to forge the letter of guarantee on that paper. The countryman forged it using his computer.

The businessman promised the official some Dhs70,000 to pose as a worker from the bank to instil confidence in the trading company’s finance manager that he was dealing with the right people.

In court they denied embezzling the commercial bank’s headed paper, using its stamp to forge a letter of guarantee, bribery, and impersonation and trying to swindle Dhs1.4m worth of iron supports. Hearing continues.

In November 2016, the businessman went to the trading company with two Asian men as representatives of the contracting company. The management asked them to present a letter of guarantee to conclude the deal.

On Nov.21 that year the businessman claimed the letter was ready. He directed the trading company’s finance manager to contact the bank’s manager – the sales director in disguise – who supported his claim.

The director claimed that the official was his subordinate at the bank. The finance manager met the official (who posed as a bank employee) and the businessman, at the bank’s branch in Bur Dubai.

The official handed him the forged letter. The finance manager doubted the letter as it was short of certain data. He contacted the concerned bank which notified him the letter had been forged.

Upon the businessman’s arrest he said the official had told him he was capable of processing the letter against Dhs70,000. He also added that he did not know where he obtained the letter from, or whether he forged it.

The official upon arrest confessed to the forgery charge and implicated the director and the countryman. He added that it was the businessman who had requested him to help find the letter.

The director refuted the allegations and claimed the he refused to take part. The countryman upon arrest denied taking part but revealed he was aware the official forged the letter using a computer inside a café in Sharjah.

However, before prosecutors he acknowledged having prepared the letter’s format. “The official (my friend) told me he was not good at English and he had a client who wanted a letter of guarantee’s format.