Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced a gang of four Africans to 6 months in jail to be followed by deportation and fined them Dhs970,000 in a theft case.

The defendants stole Dhs786,000 and $50,000 from a shipping company in Al Muteena after keeping an eye on the company for several days and making sure that there were sums of money in its safe.

The incidents took place inside a shipping company in the Al Muteena area in Dubai, when an Asian female employee discovered on the day of the incident that the external lock of the company’s door had been broken and consequently she informed the company owner of what she saw.

According to the company owner’s statement in the interrogations, he entered the company’s headquarters and saw that the safe had been vandalised and that Dhs786,000 and $50,000 that were inside it had disappeared. 

He checked the surveillance cameras to see three Africans enter the company after breaking the lock of the external door. He also saw another person watching the place and consequently he reported the incident to the police.

A policeman stated that a team of detectives gathered inferences from the scene and managed to identify the suspects after analysing their biometrics and tracking the vehicle they used after stealing the money.

He added that two of the suspects who were arrested in an adjacent emirate with Dhs3,000 in their possession admitted that the money they had was their share of the robbery.

One of them admitted that he was assigned to watch the place, for which he received Dhs20,000, while the other admitted that he received Dhs50,000 as part of his share of the robbery. They added that they had sent the money to their home country.

The policeman added that the third suspect was arrested in another emirate and the fourth at Dubai International Airport while attempting to travel outside the country.