DUBAI // Five men have been jailed for breaking into a mobile phone shop and stealing Dh1.6 million worth of smartphones and tablets as well as Dh500,000 in cash.
The Dubai Criminal Court acquitted one of the six charged, Afghani M K, 24, from charges of breaking and entering, robbery, and damaging property. However Pakistanis J K, 32, and M S, 35, and Afghanis J A, 22, and S M, 20, who faced the same charges, were convicted and sentenced to three years in jail followed by deportation.
Pakistani A B, 23, who was charged with possessing stolen items, was sentenced to three months in jail.
Prosecutors said the men broke into the company and stole 11 boxes of smartphones of different brands and iPads. They also stole Dh500,000 in cash after using a bolt-cutter to remove the lock on the main door of the shop.
They damaged the lock, cut off the wires to the surveillance cameras and broke the drawers in the company finance department.
All defendants denied the charges when they appeared at the Dubai Criminal Court last August.
Pakistani M F S, 29, a sales manager at the store, testified that there was Dh720,000 cash in the finance department the night of May 28 before he went home.
“The next morning I received a call from the cleaner telling me that he found the main lock broken when he first arrived to the company,” he testified.
He said that he then rushed to the shop, in the Naif area, to find cash missing and many boxes containing smart phones and iPads also missing.
“I had informed my manager while I was on the way to the company and called police when I arrived and despite the cut off cables of the cameras, one camera caught the defendants in action. We provided the police with the recording,” M F S said.
It was not clear how the men were tracked down and arrested but prosecutors said that the men confessed to all charges during investigations.
A forensic report matched fingerprints taken from the robbery scene to that of the defendants.
salamir@thenational.ae
