Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Sohaila Ahmed, Staff Reporter

A 27-year-old man Gulf national was arrested and referred to criminal court, along with other runaway accomplices, for impersonating the identity of undercover police officers and robbing a group of men of over Dhs642,000 in cash and other items.

Official records indicate that victim worked in a company which entrusted him with huge amounts of money to be deposited into another company’s account, and one day before the incident, the victim received an amount of Dhs551,200 to be deposited.

When the victim was late in depositing the amount, he had to return to his sharing apartment with it and hid it in a safe under his bed.

At that night, while the victim was having dinner with his roommates, the defendant and his accomplices barged into the apartment and showed a fake badge, claiming they were undercover police officers who came to arrest the victim and his roommates on drug charges.

When the victim denied possessing any drugs, the defendant and his gang searched the place. When nothing was found, the defendant then asked if there was money in the apartment.

The scared victim lead him to the hidden safe, explaining that it belongs to the company he works in and showed the receipt for it. The victim also showed an amount of Dhs91,100 that belonged to him.

The victim requested to be accompanied to the police station in order to confirm his story, and accordingly, the defendant seized the total amount of Dhs642,300, as well as a laptop and the phones of all the roommates.

As soon as they left the building, the defendant pretended to look for police patrol vehicle, and his accomplices claimed that it wasn’t available at the moment.

The defendants then called for a taxi to take them to the police station, and this is when the victim got suspicious and began to doubt their whole story.

When the taxi was about to move out of the area, the victim realised he was tricked and furiously screamed “you’re not police officers.. I will call the police.”

They all got out of the taxi and a physical fight blasted between the victim and the defendants. The victim was able to catch the first defendant, while other accomplices fled the scene.

Police arrested the impersonator and referred him to criminal court, where he is now facing robbery, police officer impersonation and assault charges.