Three administrative employees at a technical boys’ school in Isa Town are on trial for allegedly embezzling nearly BD87,000 from the school’s coffers by deceiving the principal into signing blank cheques.
They appeared for their first hearing at the High Criminal Court yesterday where they faced numerous charges related to corruption, forgery, falsification and exploiting their positions of authority.
The three Bahraini men occupied key positions on the school’s financial committee, handling the treasury, chequebooks, purchasing, auditing and even the school’s safe.
Prosecutors claim that the men falsified, doctored or altered 68 invoices, 163 cheques, 103 quotations and 355 receipts to embezzle a total of BD86,892 in public funds.
One of the defendants, a 36-year-old, who worked as the school’s administrative and financial services director, has been accused of being the one who orchestrated the scheme and recruited the other two defendants.
In Public Prosecution hearings, he admitted to forging documents, using them for his own gain and taking advantage of blank cheques signed by the principal over a span of five years.
He and the co-defendants, a 34-year-old treasurer and a 33-year-old purchasing manager, have been charged with taking their employer’s money with the help ‘well-meaning’ colleagues.
They allegedly collaborated to carry out the embezzlements by taking turns to manipulate the principal to sign cheques entrusted to the 36-year-old.
The so-called mastermind faces four extra charges on his own, which include providing false information to be entered as legitimate into official records and obtaining signatures through deception.
He also stands accused of falsifying receipts and invoices from businesses the school deals with regularly, to give credibility to the cheques, going so far as creating invoices from scratch in order to mirror real ones, and populating them with false data and altering real invoices.
The co-defendants admitted to aiding and abetting the man, and knowingly using the fake cheques for their own profit.
Education Ministry auditors reportedly discovered the theft during a regular audit of the school. After noting some suspicious decisions taken by the school, an investigation committee was set up.
Several violations were detected and some receipts were suspected of being bogus. The ministry handed over the case to the Public Prosecution, and submitted a report including the probe evidence and findings.
A technical report of the computers used by the accused revealed that at least one of the defendants allegedly used specialised software to create and alter cheques and falsify purchase orders.
Further testimonies from merchants whose invoices and documents were involved revealed that some had no dealings with the school, while others’ transactions did not conform with the forged documents.
Following their identification and arrest, the defendants were interrogated, and they admitted to forging documents and cheques and depositing the amounts into their personal accounts.
Financial investigators stated that they found that the stolen money was spent on salons, cafés, car dealerships, insurance, electric bills, restaurants, menswear stores, credit cards, phone bills, pharmacies, clinics and petrol stations.
Judges adjourned the hearing to February 3 for defence responses.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
Top stories for today:
GCC railway network plans on track
3,000 attend traditional harvest festival celebrations
Call to promote restorative criminal justice systems
&uuid=(email))