The Dubai Criminal Court has fined a gang of four Africans worth Dh675,000 after they robbed the same amount from a shipping firm by intimidating its employees with a knife.
They have also been sentenced to three years of imprisonment and will be deported after serving prison time. One of the accused has still not been caught.
As per the police records, the case is from last October, when an accountant filed a complaint at a police station saying that he had been looted under pressure while he was on duty at the shipping company.
He informed the police that one of the accused had visited the office to ask about the price of shipping goods to an African nation. The victim gave him a list of all charges, after which the suspect went to a waiting room and made a call.
After ten minutes, three others entered the office, seized employees’ mobile phones and intimidated them to kill them with a knife.
The accountant said that one of the suspects threatened him with a knife and compelled him to open the company’s locker. The man held Dh670,000, after which he and the other three defendants escaped the scene.
A police officer stated that CID verified the scene from the company’s security cameras. They managed to identify the wrongdoers and their location after a taxi driver discovered a mobile phone that was of one of the victims.
The driver stated that he dropped the gang at an adjoining emirate.
He took the officers to the location where the gang was captured after being set up by a trap.
One of the suspects was captured with Dh39,000 in his custody. He confessed that he got the amount in exchange for his participation in the theft. Two others were charged with an estimated Dh30,000 in their possession, along with mobile phones that were of the victims.
The three men admitted that the fourth suspect had not yet been captured and had the remaining amount. The Dubai Court of Appeal has maintained the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance.