JEDDAH, 2 August — A court here has ordered a Saudi to pay SR3 million to Saudi Telecom for using 17 mobile phones to make international calls in an illegal manner.

The court found that the seven mobile connections issued by the STC to him were handed to his brother, who later fled the country to escape the law, to run an international call service at less than official STC rates. The bill for such illegal calls reached SR493,000.

The accused also obtained 10 other mobile connections in the name of another Saudi without his knowledge. For this act of fraud he had produced unauthorized documents at the STC office. He gave these mobile phones also to his brother for conducting an illegal joint for international calls. The bills from these calls ran up to SR 2.3 million.

The accused also tried to lighten the enormity of the charges against him by denying his involvement in the forgery of another Saudi’s ID in order to get the 10 connections issued in his name. The accused said it was an employee of the STC who arranged the issue of connections with a copy of the ID without attestation from the notary. However, the investigation officials have confirmed the full responsibility of the accused in the fraud and convinced the court of the fact. According to a reliable source, the man was earlier convicted and jailed on charges of theft. The man is also fined an additional SR10,000 in addition to the bills to be paid to the STC.

The STC has also decided to terminate the services of the official who issued the telephone connections to the accused without scrutinizing the details supplied by the man. The official will be denied his end of the service benefits and any other compensations except for the remaining days of his annual vacation.

The Interior Ministry deported the expatriates involved in operating a telephone booth for illegal international calls and they will never again be allowed to enter the Kingdom.

According to a leading journalist Abdullah Al-Dhubyani, the guilty Saudi’s act amounted to stealing public money. The company’s move to punish the official who was negligent in discharging his duty of carefully examining the details supplied by the applicants is also commendable, he said.