Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Mohammed Yassen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced a gang of 4 Africans, including a fugitive to one year in prison and ordered them to pay jointly a fine of Dhs342,000 over the charges of robbery under knife-point.

All of them will be deported after serving their jail term.

The details of the cases dates back to when the convicts lured the victims (three women) to a fake deal to sell “Bitcoin.”

Earlier in last August, three women lodged a complaint stating that they had been subjected to robbery under knifepoint by African persons.

One of the victims said in the investigations that an African man offered her to buy cryptocurrency for Dhs300,000, and she accepted the offer and agreed to meet in Al Nahda, Dubai, she added, noting that she accompanied by two of her friends reached the specified location in time.

After waiting for few minutes in a car owned by one of them, the women were surprised by four persons threatening them with blunt objects, ordering them to hand over the money they brought for the cryptocurrency deal.

They gangsters were able to snatch the bag that contained Dhs300,000, in addition to another containing Dhs63,000, other valuable items and their passports as well.

The driver of one of the three women stated in his testimony that he was waiting inside one of the women’s vehicles after they reached the scene, where he heard screaming and saw two Africans threatening the three women, stealing bags and items and fleeing the place in another vehicle.

The driver was able to write down the plate number of the vehicle in which they ran away.

An investigation team managed to identify one of the suspects, as his photo was shown to the victims, who recognised him.

He was arrested and admitted to his presence at the crime scene at the request of one of his friends who asked to drop him to Al Nahda area to complete a “Bitcoin deal.”

They went to the same location at the specified time, as they committed the crime and were able to steal the value of the fake deal, he added.

He also informed the the police about the location of his partners, so two others were arrested, and referred to the Court, where they have been sentenced to one year in jail with a fine equal to the stolen money, in addition to deportation after serving the term.