Tourist sentenced to three years in jail for Rolex and passport theft

DUBAI // A British tourist who stole a compatriot’s Rolex watch worth Dh36,000 and his passport has been sentenced to three years in jail.

Dubai Criminal Court also fined D P, 29, Dh500 and ordered him to pay temporary compensation of Dh21,000 to the victim.

D P denied theft and trespassing last month and told judges he was drunk at the time of the incident.

“So why was his word taken against mine?” the defendant said.

Prosecutors said that the victim, British company manager T M, 45, had wanted to sell his watch and received a phone call from a friend in the UK, who informed him a man in Dubai was interested in buying it.

“He told me the buyer was a colleague of a friend of his who was living in Dubai, so he provided me with his contact number,” T M said.

On June 11, T M called the buyer and they agreed to meet him at his hotel.

They met at the reception “but the buyer told me he would rather check the watch in my room so we went there”, T M said.

They entered T M’s room on the 33rd floor, but soon after the buyer opened the door, D P came in behind them.

The victim said D P “was talking in a violent tone, was screaming at me and demanded I hand him the watch that I was wearing at the time”.

He said D P ordered him to unlock the safe in his room. He did so, and D P snatched his passport, the only item in the safe.

“He told me he would not give me back my passport unless I paid him £30,000 [Dh167,830]. Then he sprinkled some white powder on my table and told me it was drugs in case I thought of calling the police,” T M said.

The defendant sent T M a text message 10 minutes after he left demanding the payment, but T M’s friend arrived soon after and advised him to call police.

The defendant was arrested two days later after being tracked down through the licence plate of the car he drove to the hotel.

He will be deported after serving his jail term.