DUBAI // Four men who kidnapped gold traders then stole more than one million dirhams in various currencies from them each had their three-year sentence upheld by Dubai Court of Appeal.

Bangladeshis JN, 19, MY, 18, OA, 23, and 19-year-old YT kidnapped their compatriots, robbed them, then covered their faces and tied their hands before leaving them in a deserted area.

Dubai Criminal Court heard that on January 14, victims MR, 27, and MA, 29, arrived in Naif at 9pm carrying the cash for a meeting to buy 9kg of gold from a trader.

“A number of men came to us and said they were police officers,” said MR.

He said the men asked them for their identification, which they presented, but were then taken to a white car.

“They covered our faces and tied our hands then drove for about 50 minutes before they threw us out in a sandy area and drove off with the cash,” said MR.

After two hours, the two men managed to untie themselves and remove the masks to find they had been dumped in Mleiha, in Sharjah.

MR called his boss and informed him of what had happened and the boss headed to a police station.

On January 16, the gang were arrested.

During investigations, JN confessed to carrying out the crime after spending two days with the rest of the men watching the victims.

He said that the mastermind was a fifth man who remains unidentified in records. Investigations revealed that he had left the country on January 15 with his share of the stolen cash.

JN also said that, after the robbery, the defendants headed to Ajman, where he was given his Dh175,000 share of the total stolen amount, while MY took Dh100,000 and the other two took the remaining cash to split it with the mastermind.

The men were charged with kidnap and robbery, which they denied in court in April.

However, they were convicted and sentenced to three years each, to be followed by deportation. They appealed and lost.

salamir@thenational.ae