Blackmail attempt lands wily colleague in prison

A man who stole his colleague’s laptop and threatened to upload her photographs on social networking sites unless she paid him Dh200,000 was sentenced to four months in jail for theft and extortion.

The man, according to case records at the Abu Dhabi criminal court, planned to blackmail the woman by stealing her laptop which contained her photographs and private information.

He then sent her threatening text messages demanding the money. He used the SIM card of a different country to send the messages to make her think they were being sent by someone from outside the UAE.

He thought this way, she would not suspect him or report the matter to the police. Since she was from a conservative family and the money meant nothing to her, he felt she would pay up rather than go to police.

At first, the woman did not take much notice of the messages. She had nothing to hide and had also heard many stories about people being defrauded through such messages.

But when the SMSes flooded her, she felt the matter was serious and tried to call up the number from where she was getting the threats.

When he did not take the calls, she sent him a message asking about the photographs and their source.

The answer was shocking as it contained a photograph she remembered having saved on her laptop that was stolen from her car.

She didn’t want her photos to go viral as they showed her without veil.

After debating whether to inform the police, she finally did so. The officers coached her to tell the man that she would pay him the money if he handed over the photographs.
A trap was laid for the man and he was eventually arrested. The victim was stunned to see it was no other than her colleague.

Police also recovered the SIM card used by the man to send the messages as well as the stolen laptop.

She claimed compensation from him in court, saying she had suffered losses.

The man denied the charges levelled against him, saying he had not stolen the laptop but that she had given it to him to get it repaired.

The court found him guilty and handed him down a month in jail for theft and three more months for blackmail.

The case was then referred to the civil court to consider the victim’s compensation claim.

This report has been published in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi judicial department

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