DUBAI // Five men who robbed a money exchange using tear gas and a Taser gun were sentenced to three years in jail each. The men drove a BMW car with stolen number plates to Al Razouki Exchange in Karama on December 13 last year.
At about 3.30pm, they stormed in wearing masks, sprayed tear gas, Tasered several customers and threatened the employees and customers with toy guns.
One man collected the money in a backpack and they fled the scene, setting fire to the car some time after.
The men, from Kyrgyzstan, were convicted of armed robbery, assaulting employees and clients, setting fire to the getaway car, resisting arrest and assaulting police.
Four of the men denied the charges, claiming a fifth person, who is still at large, planned the robbery and forced them to take part after threatening them and their families.
One exchange worker, a 41-year-old Indian accountant, told Dubai Criminal Court: “I was busy with a money transfer for a client when the masked men came in and sprayed all of us with tear gas and used the Taser gun on some of our clients.”
A customer in the exchange, a 26-year-old Indian, said: “They came in and one of them was screaming. It happened so fast that one sprayed my eyes with something burning then stunned me – I couldn’t open my eyes but I heard screams.”
The men got away with more than Dh700,000 and transferred some of the money to their home country.
“Four arrests were made shortly after the report was made and two suspects confessed willingly and said they bought the used car for Dh12,000,” said an Emirati police captain, 33.
He said when the men were tracked down to Sharjah, some of them resisted arrest and assaulted CID officers.
One of the men was also convicted of stealing a car number plate and fixing it to the getaway car, while two others confessed to returning to the UAE after previously having been deported.
They will all be deported after serving their terms.
salamir@thenational.ae
