Dubai // Four men slashed a man’s tyre then robbed him of Dh148,000 while pretending to help him fix it, a court heard.
They then claimed they stole the money as a prank and were going to return it.
Indian S A, 39, visited a bank on August 24 and cashed two cheques for his company.
“One cheque was for Dh148,000 and the other for Dh41,000,” said the victim.
When he tried to drive away one of the tyres was flat.
“I picked up the spare tyre and tried to replace the flat one but couldn’t,” he said.
“A man came to help me but he started talking to me and had me walk with him slightly away from the car for about five minutes before he left. Then I drove to a nearby petrol station.”
He then noticed the Dh148,000 was missing and suspected the man who had pretended to help had robbed him.
The Indian called his manager and police arrested four men.
They said one of the group cut the tyre, another distracted the victim and the other two stole the money from inside the car.
The men had been watching the victim and knew he would have a large amount of cash that day.
Police said the four men had claimed they stole the money as a prank and had meant to return it.
Their lawyer told Dubai Criminal Court they had repaid the stolen amount to the driver’s company and he submitted a waiver confirming that the company had dropped its right in the case.
The four men – E S, 32; J R, 34; JP, 40, and RK, 34 – all from Chile, confessed to armed robbery and causing damages.
A verdict is expected on December 30.
salamir@thenational.ae
