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Prison for three in burglary case

The burglary took place on the evening of July 16 this year. The safe in question contained 700 pre-paid telephone cards worth a total of Dh21,000, 47 passports, over HK$28,000, other assorted currencies, and 10 cheque books from various banks.

Police interviewed the staff of the company, including M.H.M., who had been working with the company for the last three years. Police found many inconsistencies in his statement and discovered among his circle of friends many suspicious characters, including M.M.K., a taxi driver. Police then went to M.M.K.'s company to speak to him. The dispatcher called M.M.K. several times on his radio but he always made excuses and never turned up.

Police immediately started a search for M.M.K. and found him hiding in a marble factory in Al Quoz. Under questioning, M.M.K. confessed to his part in the robbery and admitted to making copies of three keys, one of which was the key to the manager's office at the company in Jaddaf. M.M.K. admitted that they burned the 47 passports they found in the stolen safe in the court yard of the third defendant's residence. Police managed to recover the broken safe.

Attempted theft

The court also sentenced W.M.A., an unemployed 22-year-old Pakistani national, to one year in prison for an attempted theft. The defendant, along with two other unidentified accomplices who managed to escape, accosted M.H.M. in the street and tried to snatch an envelope he was carrying containing Dh150,000.

The three culprits must have followed M.H.M. from a bank at Bani Yas Square, where he had withdrawn Dh150,000 in cash and carried it in an envelope.

The victim walked from the square up to Maktoum Street where the three men accosted him and tried to steal the envelope, but M.H.M. held on to the envelope and resisted while calling out for help.

Two of the men managed to run away empty-handed, but W.M.A. was apprehended by a passer-by who had heard M.H.M.'s cry for help.

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