Picture used for illustrative purpose.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a ruling issued by the Court of First Instance that a gang of 6 people be sentenced to one year in jail to be followed by deportation and fined Dhs3.5 million on charges of stealing a similar amount from an Arab merchant after luring him to buy US currency.

The case dated back to March 2020, according to the victim’s testimony.

The victim said he agreed with a person working in a licensed money exchange office to buy an amount of US currency at a cheap price, adding that he came on time to the office, where he met an Arab.

The victim explained that while he was waiting inside his car, an African accompanied by other people came and asked him to examine the amount and check it was in full.

Later, the African asked the victim to send a person to receive the US currency from the exchange office in the opposite building.

The victim asked a sales manager in his company to go to the exchange office to get the money. In the meantime, other convicts assaulted the victim and took the amount, while the victim closed the back doors of the car and caught the main convict in the case.

A witness from Dubai Police said he moved to the site of a report received by the operations room stating that a person had been assaulted and Dhs3.5 million stolen under duress by Africans.

A team of detectives managed to identify and arrest the convicts, who included 6 Africans and two Arabs. The Court of First Instance acquitted one of the two Arabs and an African and ruled that the other 6 perpetrators be jailed, fined and deported. The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal.