Five men jailed over Dh9 million electric cable theft

Two security guards were involved in a series of thefts from a factory in Dubai

A criminal gang who plotted the theft of millions of dirhams worth of electrical cables from a Dubai factory have been jailed for a total of ten years.

The five men - including two security guards at the Jebel Ali business - carried out the spate of thefts from December of last year to this February.

The Pakistani employees, aged 25 and 26, allowed access to the premises to two compatriots who helped them to cut up the cables before loading them on a pick-up truck to be sold to a Bangladeshi buyer at a discount price.

The cables stolen were valued at Dh8.9 million, Dubai Criminal Court heard.

An Emirati policeman, 26, said in court records that the guards were prime suspects as soon as they were alerted to the thefts on March 5.

“The guards were suspected immediately because the warehouses where the robbery happened are fenced and have only one entrance and one exit,” he said.

He said one of the guards admitted his role in the lucrative crime when questioned.

The security guards and their two countrymen, who remain at large, were convicted of robbery and aiding a crime.

The Bangladeshi man, 28, was found guilty of possessing stolen goods.

All five men were handed two-year jail sentences and will be deported on release from prison.