The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Sohaila Ahmed, Staff Reporter

A 26-year-old Asian man was arrested and referred to criminal court for breaking into a supermarket in Dubai and stealing a huge amount of money along with telephone cards.

During investigations, the victim testified that the defendant was with the company of another runaway accomplice when the robbery took place.

After the Supermarket’s closing time, the two defendants broke in using a metal rod, and stole 77 telephone cards worth Dhs3,360, and an amount of Dhs24,500.

The victim claimed to know the apprehended defendant, as he previously shared an apartment with one his employees.

The defendant was later arrested and is now facing robbery charges.

In February, a Gulf employee, 41, working in a telecommunications company, abused his powers and seized 224,295 mobile phone recharge cards worth around Dhs14 million.

The Dubai Public Prosecution referred the defendant to the courts of law on charges of embezzling this huge number of cards, which he gave to his wife and children of her ex-husband.

According to the official records, the incident dated back to 2016 and 2017 when the defendant, who worked as a sales executive in an Etisalat branch in Deira, partially owned by the federal government, and whose tasks included requesting recharge cards for delivery to customers who wanted to exchange their damaged cards, was summoned for interrogation.

This was after the number of cards he applied for had been noticed to be far in excess of the cards requested by other branches. An inventory conducted for the cards in his custody showed that the cards he requested were not given to customers but used for himself.