Dubai, Dec 30 (IANS): A United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Indian expat has been jailed in Dubai for six months after he was charged for forging his employer's signature at least 47 times over two years to transfer 447,000 dirhams into his personal account, the media reported.

Besides the jail term, the accused, originally from Gujarat, has also been asked to pay 471,202 dirhams in fines, Gulf News said in a report.

Also charged for stealing his employer's cheque book, the expat will be deported following the completion of six months in prison.

According to the employer, Kishanchad Bhatia, said the accused had been working at his Dubai-based company, Transcontinental Indenting, as an administrative staff for the past eight years and had access to the firm's cheque books.

Court records have revealed that the accused wrote 47 account-payee cheques to systematically move the funds to his personal savings account at a bank in Dubai.

Bhatia, who has been living in the UAE for more than five decades, said the theft was discovered in October this year when a cheque book with no leaves in it but several blank counterfoils was found inside the accused man's office drawer.