Gang in the dock for stealing from vehicle

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court on Monday started hearing a case in which a gang of three Asians was charged with stealing the contents of a vehicle using a screwdriver.

The incident dates back to June when the vehicle owner, who filed the complaint, testified that as soon as he and his children got into their vehicle, they discovered that the side window was broken and some contents were missing.

The victim added that the vehicle contained a black briefcase containing three mobile phones, chequebooks belonging to the company he worked for and passports belonging to two of his colleagues in the same company.

An investigation team formed instantly by Dubai Police arrested the three defendants. Two of the defendants confessed to the charge while the third, who was the brother of one of them, denied the charge. The court ordered that the first and second be kept in custody.

In an unrelated development, two Asians were arrested on charges of offering a bribe to a customs inspector. They were referred by the Public Prosecution to the Dubai Criminal Court, which started hearing their case on Monday.

The case dates back to January when a company owner residing in the UAE and a company manager in Oman agreed that the latter would supply the former with a crane using fake bills to reduce the crane’s customs duties.

The investigations showed that the parties agreed with another person to forge a bill for the crane to be used for reducing the crane’s customs duties. They presented these bills to the customs inspector and agreed with him to grant him Dhs4,000 in return for passing the bills without inspection and examination of the crane. The inspector, however, notified the competent authorities accordingly.

Recently, the Dubai Public Prosecution referred 4 Asians including two drivers in their presence and two others who are still at large to the Dubai Criminal Court for trial on charges of stealing electric cables worth Dhs168,000 from the warehouses of several companies in three separate cases.