DUBAI: A driver has been jailed for three months for paying Dh50 in bribe to a Dubai Customs inspector for tea in return for evading customs fees at the Hatta border checkpoint.
The 33-year-old Pakistani driver, I.M., drove his pickup truck loaded with curtains to the Hatta checkpoint where he offered Dh50 in bribe to the customs inspector to allow him into Dubai without paying the required customary fees in May.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted I.M. of offering a bribe to the inspector despite his having pleaded innocent.
When he defended himself in court, the defendant claimed that he did not bribe the inspector but gave him the money thinking that it was the customary fee.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal said the accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
Records said the accused offered the inspector a bribe to abuse his job and allow him to drive the curtains into Dubai without paying the customary fees.
The inspector testified that the incident happened at 7.30am once he reported to work at the Hatta checkpoint.
“The defendant was already waiting at the border checkpoint when I reached work. I asked him to wait after I took his passport and entry permit. I had to inform my boss that I had reported to work. When I returned, he was gone. My colleagues informed me that he had driven off towards the UAE side. I followed him and made him come back to the checkpoint. When I asked him why he didn’t wait, he said one of my colleagues had granted him permission to leave. I.M. asked me not to make him pay for the curtains that were loaded in the back of his truck … he said the curtains were not for commercial purposes. Then he came to me and offered me around Dh50 [in Omani currency] and told me ‘drink tea with it, my friend’. I took the money and put it inside his passport, and then I took him to my supervisor and reported what happened,” claimed the inspector.
