“Most of the claimants are Saudis apart from a few Yemenis, Pakistanis and Afghans. They have confessed that they made false statements when confronted with strong evidence disproving their claims. They were tempted by the SR1 million compensation ordered by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for relatives of flood victims,” an official source said on Saturday.

The swindlers submitted their applications for compensation to the Civil Defense directorate in Jeddah.

They attached forged documents in their applications to prove their claims. A committee scrutinized and verified the documents, including DNA reports, and investigated whether the claims were true or not.

The scrutinizing committee determined that 43 of the applicants were attempting to cheat the government and recommended legal action against them, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Monday.

The committee observed that the swindlers mostly forged documents to give the impression that their relatives were killed in the flood or simply supplied incorrect information. The swindlers also received daily rations and other assistance given to those affected by the floods.

The report said one of the Saudi swindlers, whose identity was given as S.E. in his 60s, submitted an application claiming that his son had been carried away in the floods. The committee later found out that the son was alive and doing time in the Briman jail after being convicted of drug trafficking.

Another Saudi with the initials Q.M.H. said his two sons had drowned in the floods and was claiming SR2 million. Later, when interrogated, the father confessed that his children were killed in Jazan seven years ago.

A Yemeni expatriate claimed that his son Muawiyah had disappeared in the flood when he went to a supermarket in Quwaiza district. However, none of the unidentified dead bodies matched his blood sample in DNA tests. Detectives eventually traced the “dead” Muawiyah to a restaurant in the Mahjar district.

A 31-year-old woman in the Quwaiza neighborhood informed the Civil Defense that her mother Hutayyah, 60, and two nieces, Ahlam and Abrar, had drowned in the flood.  However, when an investigator called her sister for confirmation, she informed him that her daughters were alive and that her mother had died several years ago.

Another swindler claiming SR1 million compensation said his younger brother had gone missing in the flood, but DNA tests showed that none of the unidentified bodies were of the missing youth. However, investigators contacted a relative in Najran and discovered that the missing man was touring the Eastern Province when the floods hit Jeddah.

The investigators also discovered that a claim made by a middle-aged Saudi who said his baby was carried away in the flash floods was fabricated. He had attached a birth certificate of the child issued by a private hospital. But detectives found that the certificate was forged and the baby had died shortly after birth.

Another swindler claimed his mother in her 80s died in the flood and her body was buried in a remote village. He also produced a document issued by his tribal chief. However, subsequent investigations found that the woman had died of natural causes five years ago.

Investigations into the claims of a 65-year-old man who said his sister Wadha drowned in the floods revealed that the claimant never even had a sister. Detectives also discovered that his father falsely included the name Wadha in the family register decades ago in order to claim a bigger amount of pension money from the General Organization for Social Insurance.

In another case of attempted cheating, a man claimed his daughter Marwa, 16, was killed in the flood but her body was not found. The man later confessed that the girl was actually killed when a car ran over her on a Jeddah road seven years ago, while her body had been buried without a burial permit and the accident not reported.