Two lawyers guilty of using false employment document

TDT | Manama

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Two lawyers have been convicted after one used an employment contract she had earlier claimed was forged to demand unpaid wages through the courts.

The Court of Cassation upheld rulings that found both guilty of knowingly using a false document, ordering the forged contract to be confiscated and dismissing the lawsuit brought under it.

The case began when the first lawyer lodged a criminal complaint against the head of the firm where she worked.

She accused him of forging her employment contract by recording a monthly salary of BD600 instead of the agreed BD300.

Signature

She claimed the document submitted to the Labour Fund, Tamkeen, bore a signature that was not hers and included false information. The contract was dated 25 August 2021.

The complaint reached the Cybercrime Prosecution, where she told prosecutors she had been summoned to her employer’s office that day and asked to sign the final page of what she believed was a genuine contract. The employer, she said, signed the document in her presence.

She added that she had been signing monthly pay certificates for BD300s and only later discovered the contract on file with the authorities showed a higher salary.

Ruling

The Lower Criminal Court ruled against the employer, sentencing him to six months in prison and fining him BD500. The court ordered the false document to be confiscated.

More than four months after the criminal ruling, the same lawyer returned to court, this time represented by another lawyer, who would later stand trial alongside her.

She claimed once again to have been employed by her former firm, but this time based her case on the same contract she had earlier said was forged.

In her new lawsuit before the Third Labour Case Management Court, she demanded entitlements based on a monthly salary of BD600.