Jail for security guard who burgled apartments

A security guard who burgled the apartments he was supposed to be watching sentenced to two years in prison.

DUBAI // A security guard who burgled the apartments he was supposed to be watching was today sentenced to two years in prison.

SY, a 22-year-old from India, was caught when he stole Dh100,000 worth of gold plates from one of the apartments.

Prosecutors told the Dubai Criminal Court that he used the building's fire escape staircase to gain access to the various apartments in the building.

He would then enter through kitchen windows and steal what he could find.

Prosecutors said that he had been carrying out such burglaries "for a long time", before being caught. He was arrested after a 34-year-old Syrian tenant, MM, reported the theft of his wife's 66 gold plates worth more than Dh100,000 on January 11.

The tenant said he returned to his flat on the second floor of the Balhasa Building at about 10pm to find the safe in his wife's wardrobe broken and the gold plates missing.

He said that two of the plates weighed 100 grams, while the rest were 7.2gm.

Prosecutors said that the security guard sent one of the 100gm plates to India and sold the other to SA, a 53-year-old Iranian goldsmith. The goldsmith was said to have paid the security guard Dh6,000 for the plate. The court heard he then sold it on to RR, a 54-year-old Indian goldsmith, for Dh20,100.

Both goldsmiths were found guilty of receiving stolen goods. The Iranian goldsmith was sentenced to a year in prison to be followed by deportation while the Indian goldsmith was fined Dh5,000.

The remaining plates were recovered from behind the fire escape staircase where the security guard hid them. The security guard admitted a charge of theft.