Photo has been used for illustrative purpose.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

A gang of five people stole Dhs3 million and two precious watches worth Dhs750,000 from an Asian investor after luring him to a villa rented by one of them to carry out a fake Bitcoin deal, where he was detained, tied up and robbed.

The police arrested two suspects, and the court imprisoned them for 3 years, fined them Dhs3,750,000, and ordered the deportation of one of them after serving the sentence. The appellate court upheld the verdict.

Details of the case date back to July 2021, when a businessman filed a report stating that he had been defrauded and robbed of Dhs3 million and two watches, valued at Dhs750,000.

According to the victim’s statement in the interrogations, he saw a card sticker on his vehicle promoting the sale of the digital currency Bitcoin at a cheaper price than the market, so he contacted the number on the card and agreed with the other party to buy the digital currency in the Al Barsha area in Dubai.

He added that when he arrived at the location specified by the seller, the seller received him and asked him to enter a villa to complete the transaction via a Bitcoin trading programme after receiving the money in cash. Meanwhile, he was surprised by three people entering the place in protective clothing from the coronavirus claiming to be from the police of his home country. They told him he was under arrest and will be deported. They reportedly tied him up and put a mask on his eyes, while the others took the bag containing the money and the watches. They then took him to a vehicle and moved him to Fujairah where he was detained in the vehicle for four hours. Then he was transferred again to another vehicle driven by a GCC national who asked him for Dhs500,000 to return him to Dubai without assaulting him.

A policeman said in the interrogations that a team of investigators gathered inferences and arrested two suspects, one of whom was a GCC national and the other was a Canadian. They admitted that they connived with other fugitives to lure a businessman to steal his money.

According to the GCC national’s confession, he said that he met the second suspect a month before the incident, when he asked him to fabricate a drug case for the victim in exchange for Dhs60,000. He added on the day of the incident, the second suspect came with the victim to Fujairah, where the latter was handcuffed inside the vehicle and the suspect asked that he be put in prison for drug trafficking. In Dubai the GCC national reportedly saw a precious watch on the victim’s hand and he grabbed it and left him on a street.

The second suspect confessed that a compatriot contacted him to help him rent a villa in Al Barsha area to lure a compatriot businessman and steal his money, and they had already committed their crime.