Filipina Anna Millena Mirandilla with a copy of the cheque that was given as a guarantee while applying for a loan. Image Credit: Mazhar Farooqui /Gulf News

Dubai: Many residents would have probably given a security cheque to a bank while applying for a loan - as is the mandate for most banks. Now imagine if the cheque were stolen and encashed long after you had repaid the loan.

This is precisely what has happened to a woman in Dubai.

I am shocked and appalled. My security cheque should have been in the safe custody of the bank. I assumed they would destroy it once my loan has been paid. How did it fall into somebody else’s hand?

- Anna Millena Mirandilla, Filipina

Filipina Anna Millena Mirandilla said she was left aghast when she found out that the security cheque she had given as guarantee, for a bank loan three years ago, was encashed last month, and that too by a third-party.

“I am shocked and appalled. My security cheque should have been in the safe custody of the bank. I assumed they would destroy it once my loan has been paid. How did it fall into somebody else’s hand?” said Mirandilla who has since been running from pillar to post to resolve the issue.

Mirandilla said she wrote an account payee cheque for Dh12,081 while applying for a personal loan at Emirates Islamic Bank’s Health Care City branch in July 2016. “As instructed by the bank representative, I left the date and name of the payee blank,” she recalled.

Safe banking is of paramount importance to Emirates Islamic and we investigate and address customer concerns with the highest priority? Our team has been in touch with the customer and is currently investigating the issue.

- Statement from Emirates Islamic Bank

“Over the years, I repaid my personal loan. I was taken aback when I got a notification from the bank saying that a sum of Dh 12,081 has been debited from my account. When I contacted the bank I was told it was for a cheque I had issued to a certain Gregory Libertad Daiz. I wrote no such cheque and I don’t know any Gregory,” said Mirandilla.

“Subsequent investigations showed someone had fraudulently encashed my three-year-old security cheque by writing a third party’s name in the space left for the payee’s name. That’s not even my handwriting,” she added.

Emirates Islamic Bank said they probing the matter.