Court of Appeal Reduces Sentences in Forged School Invoices Case, Cancels Deportation

Manama: The First High Criminal Court of Appeal has reduced the sentences of an employee of the Ministry of Education and two Asian defendants convicted of forging school invoices and embezzling public funds exceeding BD5,000, citing grounds for leniency.

The court amended the original ruling by sentencing the first defendant, a Ministry of Education employee, to one year in prison, fining him BD1,570.900, and ordering him to return the same amount. The second and third defendants were each sentenced to six months in prison, with their fines and repayment of embezzled amounts upheld. The court also cancelled the deportation orders issued against them.

In the original verdict, the first defendant had been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, fined and ordered to repay BD5,448, while the second and third defendants were sentenced to one year in prison each, fined and ordered to repay BD1,661, and permanently deported after serving their sentences.

In its reasoning, the Court of Appeal said it applied Article 72 of the Penal Code to show leniency, noting that the second and third defendants had lived in Bahrain for many years without serious criminal records. The court added that the offences did not pose a serious threat to national security and that deportation would negatively affect the defendants and their families.

The case dates back to 2024, when a Ministry of Education oversight team uncovered financial irregularities in a government school’s expenses. An administrative investigation revealed fictitious, altered and suspicious invoices covering five academic years from 2019–2020 to 2023–2024.

Investigators found that several invoices were issued by businesses whose commercial registrations had been cancelled, while others were created using word-processing software and lacked tax details or recipient signatures. Payments were deliberately split into multiple invoices to allow cash disbursement instead of cheques, in violation of ministry regulations. The first defendant was found to be responsible for managing these practices.

The investigation also revealed discrepancies between official invoices and amounts paid from the school’s budget, with differences received by the third defendant. Authorities identified 13 cancelled invoices and 46 transactions linked to a contracting, cleaning and maintenance company that was effectively managed by the first defendant, although registered in his wife’s name. The services and goods claimed could not be verified.

During questioning, the first defendant admitted conspiring with the second defendant to issue fake invoices and falsify descriptions to bypass ministry approval procedures. The second defendant admitted forging invoices at the first defendant’s request, while the third defendant acknowledged issuing fictitious invoices to receive cash payments.

Based on these findings, the Court of Appeal upheld the convictions but reduced the penalties, ruling that leniency was warranted under the circumstances.