Picture used for illustrative purposes.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced three private security guards in presence and another in absentia to five years in jail to be followed by deportation and fined them Dhs7.3 million in assault and theft case. The defendants stole Dhs7 million and a Mercedes from the villa of an Asian investor they were working for after assaulting him and other members of his family and restricting the movement of his private driver.

Three of the defendants, however, were arrested while trying to leave the country via Sharjah International Airport. The court also ordered the seized items to be confiscated and the civil case to be referred to the competent court. The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal. The case dated back to October last year when an Asian investor filed a complaint in which he stated that he had been robbed under duress and that sums of money had been stolen from a safe in his villa located in Al Khawaneej in Dubai.

The victim stated that upon his return to his villa in that evening, his private security guard entered his room while brandishing a knife and asking him to give all the money he had. He tried to resist the defendant but three others restrained his movement and threatened to kill him if he would not give them all the money he had in a safe inside his room, he said, adding that he had to give them the key to the safe from which they stole Dhs7 million.

The guard and his accomplices then assaulted him as well as two of his family members and his private driver and left them all handcuffed inside the villa before they took the money and fled the place using his car, the victim said. The victim, however, managed to untie his chains and to report the incident to the police. According to the official documents, a police patrol rushed to the scene where they gathered inferences and issued a search warrant against the defendants.