DUBAI // A sales manager who denied stealing Dh51,000 and a car before fleeing the country, telling a court that he left to attend to his ill mother, had been sentenced to two years in prison.

Ugandan S G was accused of breaking into a safe at his workplace on August 18 last year and then taking a company car.

South African manager F D told prosecutors that the sales manager requested his passport to open a bank account.

She said that a week later she put Dh51,000 into the safe, which had a security code, as he looked on.

The next day she found the safe open and the money gone, while the Ugandan was not at work.

Surveillance video showed the defendant leaving with what appeared to be an envelope.

At Dubai Criminal Court, he denied the theft charge and said that it was not an envelope but a laptop bag and that he had left to attend to his unwell mother.

However, he was found guilty and he will be deported after completing his sentence.

tzriqat@thenational.ae