A gang of raiders who attacked and tied up a security guard before stealing Dh250,000 worth of electrical cables from a warehouse in Dubai have a bid to cut their jail sentences rejected.
The four men were each locked up for three years after being convicted of charges of armed robbery, confinement and assault.
They lodged an appeal against the severity of their sentences, which was rejected by Dubai Court of Appeal.
On June 25 last year, one of the offender approached the security guard to ask if he could sit outside the warehouse to escape the summer heat until his friends arrived.
When his three accomplices turned up, the group dragged the Pakistani guard into a toilet and restrained him with ropes.
The victim, 27, tried to chew his way out of his restraints and eventually managed to free himself and alert police.
"I asked him to leave and told him it's not allowed for strangers to sit in front of the warehouse but he kept stalling and calling his friends asking them to bring lunch for me. I told him I can't accept it, but suddenly his friends showed up. Two of them restrained me and the others beat me up before dragging me to the toilet and tying me up with ropes," said the guard.
Three hours later he managed to untie himself and discovered that the warehouse's doors were forced open and electric cables worth hundred of thousands of dirhams stolen.
"I called police, the warehouse supervisor and the manager as well," he said.
Police arrested the four men the next month.
The Pakistani men, aged between 27 and 37, said during police questioning that they entered the country through Fujairah from Oman.
They told police they worked in Sharjah before deciding to rob the warehouse in Al Quoz, which they came to know about through a friend.
"They sold the cables in Abu Dhabi and split the profit. Three of them said the 31-year-old defendant was the mastermind behind the robbery," said a policeman, 40.
All four denied an armed robbery charge in Dubai Criminal and Appeal Courts.
Three of them denied physical assault and confinement charges.
They will be deported after serving their terms.
