Three jailed for stealing cheques worth Dh4 million from school, Dubai court rules

Records state that the two Yemenis and a Saudi caused Dh3,300 worth of damage, stole Dh44,231 in cash and 546 cheques valued at Dh4.3m after force opening a safe.

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DUBAI // Three men who broke in to a private school in Al Rashidiya and stole cheques worth Dh4 million and cash amounting to Dh44,000 were found guilty and sentenced to a one year in prison each.

The robbery took place on October 4 last year and involved Yemenis MA, 25, AA, 30, and a Saudi accomplice, 33-year-old YA, who broke a window and sneaked into the school’s accounting department knowing that security guards were asleep.

When the three men appeared in court, they denied the charges and claimed they were in their homes in Sharjah.

The deputy manager of the school, HA, 44, told police that he was informed by the maintenance supervisor, Egyptian AM, who was scheduled to do maintenance work at the school on the morning of the break-in.

Records state that they caused Dh3,300 worth of damage, stole Dh44,231 and 546 cheques valued at Dh4.3m after force opening a safe.

Police tracked down the defendants after seeing footage of a car parked outside the school between 12am and 5am on the day of the incident. The car was rented by them and had GPS tracking enabled.

Police officer MA, 23, said: “When we tracked down the car and searched it, we found masks, hammers, scissors and screwdrivers.”

Police forensics experts took a shoe print found on one of the chairs at the crime scene and matched it to one of the defendants.

At Dubai Criminal Court, the trio were found guilty and sentenced to a one year in prison each to be followed by deportation.

newsdesk@thenational.ae