Jail terms upheld for three who burgled Dubai grandma

Appeals Court upholds two-year jail terms for two maids and a salesman who burgled the house of a babysitting grandmother.

DUBAI // The Appeals Court has upheld the jail terms of two maids and a salesman who burgled a babysitting grandmother and made off with Dh200,000.

The three were sentenced to two years in prison each by the Dubai Criminal Court.

The salesman MO, 27, and the two maids NF, 25 and FH, 27, knocked on the door of the woman's Mirdiff home on the morning of March 20 and grabbed her when she answered.

"My 18-month-old grandson was in my arms, and I thought it was the water company delivery boy," said the grandmother MT, who is from India.

One maid snatched the child and the other covered the grandmother's head with a cloth while the salesman tied her up with a bedsheet.

The salesman then sat on the grandmother's chest to stop her struggling and screaming. The grandmother fainted and woke up half an hour later to find that both her and her daughter's jewellery had been stolen. She then called her daughter and son-in-law and the security guard.

Investigators found that one of the maids had previously been employed by the grandmother. Police tracked all three of them to an apartment near the Grand Hyatt Hotel where some of the stolen items were recovered.

All three will be deported after completing their jail terms.