Photo has been used for illustrative purpose.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court ordered the imprisonment of four members of an Asian gang to be followed by deportation on charges of destroying the exhaust filters of 431 cars worth Dhs3.64 million belonging to a rent-a-car company. The court also acquitted another suspect of the charge.

The case dated back to October 2020 when a public relations representative of a Dubai-based rent-a-car company discovered that higher than usual sounds were coming from all the 431 cars rented by a client (first convict).

The representative stated that he transferred a number of cars to the company’s auto workshop for technical inspection and it was found that the chrome exhaust filters, which reduce smoke emission from exhausts, had been stolen from all the cars.

A policeman stated in the investigations that a team of detectives collected inferences and concluded that the convicts were involved in the theft of exhaust filters after one of them had rented the cars and transferred them to one of their workshops.

There, the other convicts cut the exhausts of the cars, stole the filters and then returned the cars to the rent-a-car company after welding the exhausts. The suspects were arrested and one of them admitted in the interrogations that jointly with others, he destroyed the exhausts and stole the filters. He stated that he requested a convict to rent the cars for Dhs180 each. Another convict said he had been assigned to cut the exhausts for Dhs60 per day.

Separately, an Asian businessman accused his chef of stealing seafood worth Dhs15,000 and sums of money from his house after quitting his job with him over a dispute between them. The businessman told the police accordingly and the incident was referred to the Public Prosecution. The Court of First Instance acquitted the chef of the theft charge but convicted him of illegally entering his employer’s house without permission. The court sentenced the chef to one month in jail to be followed by deportation and the ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal.