Clinic Clerk Allegedly Used Electronic Health Portal to Issue Backdated Sick-Leave Certificates With Forged Doctors’ Digital Signatures.
Dubai: A clerk employed at a local medical clinic has been sentenced to prison after the Dubai Criminal Court found her guilty of forging electronic sick-leave certificates to help employees obtain paid leave they were not legally entitled to.
The court also handed down sentences to several accomplices involved in the fraudulent scheme, in which backdated medical certificates were issued in return for cash payments.
The defendants were convicted of offences including document forgery, breach of trust and corporate fraud.
The illegal operation was uncovered after a private company noticed an unusual increase in sudden and repeated sick-leave requests among certain employees.
The medical certificates submitted by the workers carried electronic stamps linked to the same clinic, raising suspicions within the company’s human resources department.
An internal investigation was subsequently launched, and the company’s findings were reported to the relevant authorities, leading to the criminal case.
Investigations by Dubai Police revealed that the clinic clerk had collaborated with private-sector employees to provide sick-leave certificates without requiring them to undergo medical examinations, according to court records.
In exchange, she collected payments ranging from several hundred dirhams to more than Dh1,000 for each fraudulent certificate.
The clerk reportedly exploited the clinic’s electronic healthcare system to generate backdated sick-leave documents, which were then authenticated using forged digital signatures attributed to medical practitioners.
These falsified certificates enabled employees to take paid time off despite having no medically verified reason for their absence, leaving employers to bear the financial burden.
Court rejects defence arguments
During the proceedings, defence lawyers argued that the irregularities amounted to administrative errors or unauthorised actions by individual employees rather than deliberate criminal conduct.
However, the Dubai Criminal Court dismissed these arguments, concluding that the defendants had intentionally manipulated official medical records and misused the clinic’s electronic system to produce fraudulent documents.
The court imposed varying prison sentences on the clerk and her accomplices, reflecting their involvement in the scheme.
Expatriate defendants were additionally ordered to be deported after completing their prison terms. The court also imposed financial penalties and ordered restitution.
Fraudulent certificates undermine workplace and medical records
The case underscores the consequences of falsifying medical documentation, both for businesses that rely on legitimate sick-leave records and for the integrity of healthcare administration systems.
In its ruling, the court held the defendants accountable for issuing medical certificates without conducting the necessary examinations and for misleading employers into treating unjustified absences as legitimate paid sick leave.
The judgment also highlights the legal risks associated with exploiting electronic healthcare platforms to create and authenticate fraudulent medical documents.
