Picture used for illustrative purposes.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance sentencing a gang of six Asians to three years in jail to be followed by deportation and fining them Dhs18,000 for impersonating policemen and stealing money and mobile phones from others after assaulting them and locking them up inside their apartment.

The case dated back to September last year when a number of people in the Naif area reported to the police that they had been assaulted and robbed.

One of the victims stated that he was surprised by some people breaking into a residential apartment where he lived with others.

The gang members asked everybody inside the apartment to present their ID cards after telling them that they were policemen and alleging that the apartment was being used as a drug house.

The victim continued that the gang members asked everyone inside the apartment to show their ID cards and told them that they were policemen, claiming that the apartment was being used as a drug house, he said.

After searching the apartment, the gang members assaulted everybody in it and asked them to leave all the money and mobile phones they had and enter a room, he added, noting that after a short time, they fled the apartment.

A policeman stated in the interrogations that a team of detectives managed to identify and arrest the defendants near the crime scene.

The defendants admitted that they broke into the apartment and stole the money and mobile phones of those who were inside it.

A gang member stated that he took part in the theft after another gang member asked for his help in recovering Dhs5,000 that he wanted to transfer to his homeland through the owner of the apartment, but the latter took the money for himself.

He added that everyone in the apartment used to transfer money to their homeland illegally.