Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A gang of five unemployed men specialising in grabbingvaluables of Asians spotted using free WiFi around a Dubai building have been jailed for one year plus deportation.

The Asian defendant, 28, colleague, 21, countryman, 23, and two accomplices with the help fugitives zeroed in on a Bangladeshi cleaner at the building in Frij Murar at around 10:30pm on May 19, he complained.

They robbed his two Nokia mobiles worth Dhs120, a Dhs450 Samsung, his flat’s key and Dhs500. They went for a Bangladeshi worker, mugged him and decamped with his Dhs80 Nokia, Dhs435 Samsung and Dhs320.

During the robbery, the gang posed as detectives and brandished knives. The defendant, colleague and countryman confessed before police and prosecutors. The Criminal Court has handed them the penalty.

On the record, the cleaner said he was using his mobile phone when three men showed up ordering him to show his ID. They claimed they were detectives. “I pulled out my wallet. One of them grabbed it from me.

“I told them I wanted to remove the ID. One of them slapped me twice in the face and ordered me to keep quiet. They dragged me until inside a nearby building’s stairway and tied my hands with a plastic tape.

“I protested. One brandished a knife in my face and ordered me to keep quiet and face the wall,” complained the cleaner.

“They frisked and robbed him of his belongings and fled the building. A passerby helped untie him.

The Bangladeshi worker complained that he was browsing the internet using his mobile when six men surrounded him. Two of them grabbed him by his shirt and struck him on his neck while saying they were CID cops.

They dragged him inside the building, frisked and robbed him at knife point. “I went out calling for help,” he said. A Yemeni patrol corporal said, “Ethiopian expats chased and pinned down the defendant. He had three mobiles and a knife.”