DUBAI // A cook is accused of being one of three men who threatened to kill a woman and her family if she did not help them take ownership of a Maserati car, the Dubai Criminal Court heard on Sunday.
Filipina NL, 39, was authorised by her boss to sell his car and on January 5 she said she received a call from an interested buyer who read the advertisement on Dubizzle.
“He said his name was Ahmad and asked for the address to come [and] see the car. I gave it to him and he arrived to the Palm Jumeirah in a Range Rover with three other men,” said NL.
She said that the men were very friendly and chatted with her about the car then about her home country and family.
“We then agreed on the sale in return for Dh420,000. I was to call a recovery service to drive the car to the traffic department so we finalise the procedures but one of them said that we can drive the car there. I called by boss and told him, he said it was OK so we drove to Al Barsha branch,” she said.
She noted that just as they were getting closer to the traffic department, the men took her bag and phone as well as the car’s ownership certificate.
“They then threatened me saying that I should tell traffic employees that I received the car’s price in full or they would kill my daughter back in Philippines as well as my family and would also kill me,” said NL.
“They said they were Emiratis and can cause me harm,” added the woman, who was dropped near Dubai Mall after the incident.
She called her boss’s friend and told him what happened. He told her boss who reported the incident to police.
Police tracked down the Range Rover and arrested Yemeni cook DA, 43, as he came to the rental office to retrieve a passport which was left when the car was rented.
“We asked him why would he come to take a passport that doesn’t belong to him, he said that he was promised Dh500 if he did so, but the man who offered him the money disappeared after DA’s arrest,” testified policeman EA, 37.
The other two men were not arrested.
DA denied charges of stealing the car and of issuing threats to kill.
The next hearing is on December 7.
salamir@thenational.ae
