Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced three Latin American to six months in jail to be followed by deportation and fined them Dhs200,000 for stealing the same amount of the fine from an Asian driver after they had seen him leaving a bank in Deira.

The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The case dates back to last February when an Asian driver reported to the police that Dhs200,000 had been stolen from a vehicle belonging to a company he was working for after its windshield had been broken.

The driver stated that on the day of the incident, he was assigned by his immediate manager to cash a cheque for Dhs200,000 in favour of a company he was working for.

He went to the bank, cashed the cheque and received the cash money in an envelope before he drove back to his workplace in Nad Al Hamar, he said.

Before he arrived, he stopped in a petrol station to use the water closet, he added, noting that when he returned he saw an Arab who told him that he had seen people breaking the windshield of his vehicle and stealing items from inside before they left the scene in another vehicle.

A policeman stated in the interrogations that a team of detectives gathered inferences from the crime scene and checked the surveillance cameras at the petrol station and the bank.

They saw the gang members monitoring the driver and chasing him to the petrol station where they stole the money from his vehicle.

Later, the defendants were arrested inside their place of residence in a hotel in Deira.

The defendants admitted that they used to monitor bank customers while going out of banks and chase them in a vehicle that belonged to one of them.

They added that on the day of the incident, they saw the driver while leaving the bank and managed to chase him and steal his money after breaking the windshield of his vehicle.

Later, they distributed the money among them and sent the same to their respective families in their home country, they said.