Sisters in the dock over phone theft

Two maids who stole their employer’s mobile phone and made over Dh2,000 worth of calls from it, while she was ill in hospital, have been referred by the Dubai Public Prosecution to the criminal court on the charges of theft and illegally using Etisalat services.

Allegedly, the duo also transferred credit amounts totaling Dh940 to their personal phone numbers. The case unfolded when the brother of the victim lodged a complaint to the police saying that his sister discovered that her mobile phone had disappeared after returning home from hospital.

‘She asked the domestic servant M.A.Y., 23, Ethiopian whether she had seen her mobile, (but) the latter denied seeing it’, he said, adding that the second maid, S.A.Y., 24 — sister of the first maid — gave the same answer. He said his sister was shocked when she received a telephone bill amounting to Dh4,446. After going through the bill, she discovered that most of the calls were international and the numbers belonged to the family of the maids. She also discovered that there were credits transferred to their mobile phones.

After the brother filed a complaint at the Al Rashidiya Police Station, the duo was remanded in police custody pending further investigation. The next day, the police searched the bedroom of the two housemaids, and found the missing mobile phone stashed in the middle of their wardrobe.

salah@khaleejtimes.com