DUBAI // A salesman from New Zealand who sprayed gasoline over employees at a money exchange before threatening to set them on fire if he was not given cash was sentenced to six months in jail by the Criminal Court.
Prosecutors said that on May 1, M S, 52, walked into the exchange wearing a mask, gloves, cap, and coat and holding a bottle containing gasoline.
He sprayed the counter and the faces of some of the employees then threatened to set them on fire with a lighter.
“I was coming out of the fax room when I saw him trying to spray more fuel in front of a second employee but he did not succeed because of the glass barrier,” said supervisor J P, 33, a Filipino.
Records said police arrived and arrested M S.
During interrogation, he confessed to prosecutors that he filled the plastic bottle with gasoline from a petrol station, then cycled to the money exchange.
M S was not present in court to answer the charges of attempted robbery and endangering lives on his first hearing in October.
He will be deported after completing his jail term.
salamir@thenational.ae
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