Makkah’s regional governorate has set up the committee, comprising officials from Jeddah’s governorate, Civil Defense and police.

Those who obtained money after presenting false compensation claims will be brought to justice, sources close to the committee told Al-Madinah daily.

Following the flooding, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ordered SR1 million compensation for each flood victim, to be paid to their respective families.

There were a large number of claims from residents who said they had lost relatives to the floods. A large number of them later turned out to be false.

Jeddah officials from the Prosecution and Investigation Authority had compiled a list of 96 residents suspected of providing false information to obtain compensation. The suspicions were confirmed when these people failed to report to committees originally set up to administer compensation after they had been paid.

The authority then presented the list to Jeddah police so steps could be taken to prosecute them.

The alleged fraudsters, who did not live in areas affected by the floods, had also obtained money allocated to help victims pay for their accommodation and living costs.

It was also found that some of them had allegedly fabricated stories exaggerating the death toll and the numbers of those missing following the disaster.

They even produced fake death certificates of relatives who had died before the disaster had even happened in order to claim compensation.

A Saudi citizen reportedly admitted to authorities that he had supplied false information regarding his daughter’s death, which had happened before the floods, in order to receive the SR1 million payout.

He applied for the death certificate only after the disaster and supplied false details.

Authorities have also questioned a 60-year-old woman who claimed that her mother was a victim of the disaster.

However, she was unable to supply a burial certificate, which raised suspicions among police and Civil Defense officials.