Three years in jail for burglars who stole electronic items worth Dh1.5m

Four burglars who stole electronics worth more than Dh1.5 million from a warehouse are sentenced to three years in prison each.

DUBAI // Four burglars who stole 30,000 electronic items worth more than Dh1.5 million from a warehouse have been sentenced to three years in prison.

The Criminal Court found the Indians AA, 30, MM, 25, MR, 32 and MA, 37, guilty of armed robbery, and ordered each to be deported after serving their sentences. A fifth man, who remains at large, was found guilty in absentia.

The men broke into the Emirates Gulf International warehouse in Al Qusais Industrial 4 in the early hours of August 4 this year and stole 80 per cent of the items kept there - including air conditioners, washing machines, television sets, cameras and DVD players. The 30,626 items were valued at Dh1.638 million.

A labourer at the company discovered the theft the next morning when he noticed the warehouse locks had changed. He called his Indian boss, WA, 52, who reported the matter to police.

Officers tracked the burglars through a driver and some workers they had tricked into helping them move the items to a villa in Sharjah.

They found the four men in possession of electronics worth Dh450,000 - the rest of the items are thought to have been sold to shops in Ajman.