Dubai hotel security guard steals over Dhs80,000 from guest's safe

Sohaila Ahmed, Staff Reporter

An African security guard is facing trial on robbery charges for robbing a hotel guest of nearly Dhs80,000 over a period of time.

Police revealed that the robbery had taken place during April to May this year, when the hotel management filed a police report against the defendant claiming he had robbed the customer.

The accused, who is the Head of Security’s Assistant, has been working in the hotel apartment for over two years and has authority to access all rooms and parking space.

It all began in April when the defendant was in the European victim’s room to complete a weekly check-up as the guest was  travelled abroad.

The security procedure went on for three weeks on a row until the defendant decided to approach the victim’s safe.

He used a laptop to connect a cable to the safe and unlock it using an application.

Over the span of three weeks, he took out  €11,450, $3,060, and Dhs20,000, which in total reached over Dhs80,000.

The defendant confessed that he used money to buy personal items and send amounts back to his family in his home country.

The victim testified saying, “I have been renting the room for about a year and I had full trust in the safety of my belongings. My money was hidden inside the safe and placed in envelopes accordingly.”

After returning back to the UAE, the victim opened the safe to take out money to pay three months' rent.

To his surprise he found huge amount of money was missing from the safe.

She informed the hotel management, who in their turn started an investigation.

The management witnessed the defendant entering the victim’s room multiple times through surveillance footage, besides using the emergency pass code to unlock her safe.

Police were alerted with the incident and the defendant was arrested.

The hotel management also discovered that the defendant had robbed another Asian hotel guest on a different occasion, and a police report was filed awaiting for legal punishment.