A Maldivian man who worked as a college dean at the American College in Dublin, Ireland has been fined €3,000 (MVR 60,676) for using his work credit card to pay for personal expenses.
36-year-old Ali Shimaz pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 11 counts of theft totalling €5,622 (MVR 113,707) from the American College on dates between June and September 2009.
The Independent reported that Shimaz had used the work credit card to pay for flights for himself, his wife and a woman he was having an affair with for over a period of several months.
Judge Mary Ellen Ring, who presided over the case, was reported as saying “the thefts were not sophisticated and there was a clear paper trail of emails and credit card statements showing what Shimaz was up to”.
Judge Ring said she did not think society would be best served by imprisoning him and instead imposed a €3,000 (MVR 60,676) fine on him.
The thefts came to light after Shimaz, who is originally from the Maldives but currently living in Dublin, resigned from his post of Dean at the American College, where he was responsible for the recruitment of foreign students.
The Independent reported that Shimaz had originally been a student at the college, eventually becoming an employee and rising to the position of Dean.
Within this role, Shimaz travelled across the world to conferences and fairs and had been issued with a college credit card exclusively for work use.
Suspicions were aroused in October 2009 when Shimaz failed to submit requested receipts, and a subsequent investigation into his email accounts showed flight confirmations for reservations not connected with college business.
In October 2009 Shimaz met with the vice-president of the college and another Dean before agreeing to resign and repay the money he had taken. However, the money was not paid until last month when he pleaded guilty to these offences.
James McCullough BL, defending, told how Shimaz had been educated to secondary level in the Maldives and then studied from 2000 to 2004 at American College.
The Independent reported that Shimaz has since repaid the money to American College, and that he has no previous convictions.
According to the paper, Shimaz’s defence attorney James McCullough said it took Shimaz a while to accept he was in breach of criminal law, “but he has now come to that realisation and was aware of the perilous situation he is now in.”
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