Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Misdemeanor Court sentenced two Arabs to one month in jail to be followed by deportation and fined them Dhs248 on theft charges. The defendants stole seven boxes of Panadol from a pharmacy when one of them distracted the pharmacy employee and the other took the medicine and hid it in his bag. They, however, fled away after the employee discovered what they did.

The incident, which took place in Al Nahda area in Dubai, dated back to last November when an employee reported to the police that a pharmacy that she was working for had been robbed. The employee stated that the defendants entered the pharmacy and inquired about an antifungal medicine, for which they were offered a number of medications.

While one of the defendants tried intentionally to distract her, she saw the other putting medicines in a cloth bag that he took out of his pocket, she said. When she faced them with what she had seen, the defendants fled away and she reported the incident to the police, she added.

A policeman stated that after a team of detectives gathered inferences from the scene of the incident and checked the pharmacy’s surveillance cameras, managed to identify and arrest the defendants. On interrogation, the defendants denied stealing Panadol from the pharmacy. Later, when they were faced with the evidence, surveillance camera recordings and their photographs while stealing medications from another pharmacy, the defendants had to admit the theft.