UAE

Dubai computer programmer ‘stole £500,000 from UK client’

Greek IT expert is accused of created a software programme and manipulating it so that sums of money would be automatically transferred into one of his three accounts.

Salam Al Amir
Salam Al Amir

December 08, 2015

DUBAI // A 43-year-old computer programmer stole half a million British pounds from a company providing financial transfer services, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.

C T, from Greece, is charged with theft and forgery of electronic documents.

Prosecutors said that on August 20 and before then he had been manipulating the amounts deposited into the account of a company based in Oxford, UK, making fake deposits and depositing the same amount several times, in an attempt to hide his theft of Dh2.7 million.

Pakistani S H, 61, testified that he hired the defendant last year to join his Dubai company, which is active in developing computer programs.

“We signed a contract with a company called LA, which is located in the UK, in order to build them a program for financial transferring services,” said the Pakistani.

“I assigned the job to one of our programmers but he resigned before completing the program, then I assigned the task to C T.”

When finished, S H said it was handed to the client in Oxford but a link to it was kept with him for back-up and technical support.

In July, the client complained to S H’s company stating that amounts of money had been transferred through the program to a number of bank accounts that they did not know of.

“When I asked C T about this issue, he said he created the accounts and made the transfers as a trial but the client said that actual amounts of up to half a million pounds were transferred to these accounts,” said S H, adding that the defendant claimed a virus may have caused the transfers.

SH’s company then sought the help of Leo IT Solutions and a second IT expert from Canada. Both examined the program and confirmed that it had been manipulated and the transfers were made intentionally.

“I confronted C T with the findings and he confessed in the presence of two men that he made the transfers and admitted it was wrong, then he submitted a written confession,” said SH, who reported the matter to police.

Records show that the defendant created three bank accounts to which he transferred the money.

Prosecutors attached a copy of the defendant’s confession to the case file.

“I didn’t steal nor did I amend the program,” the defendant said in court on Tuesday.

His lawyer requested bail but the court rejected the request and rescheduled the hearing to December 22.

salamir@thenational.ae

The five stages of early child’s play

From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:

1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.

2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.

3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.

4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.

5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.