Dubai expat jailed for stealing Dh38,000 watch from student

Top Stories

Dubai expat jailed for stealing Dh38,000 watch from student

Dubai - The incident took place in May and was reported to Bur Dubai police station.

By Marie Nammour

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Sat 29 Sep 2018, 1:22 PM

Last updated: Sat 29 Sep 2018, 7:45 PM

A Dubai expat has been sentenced to six months in jail by a court after he was found guilty of stealing a Dh38,000 watch from a Chinese student. The convict used an Emirati man's ID to commit the theft.
The Court of First Instance was earlier told the 28-year-old Palestinian man contacted the victim after seeing an ad the latter had posted online, offering his watch for sale.
The accused showed the student an ID that was not his own to steal the watch, according to public prosecution records.
He was convicted of charges of wrongful use of others' ID, making benefit from that use, and theft by impersonation. He was ordered to be deported upon completion of his jail term.
He has appealed his conviction order.
The incident took place in May and was reported to Bur Dubai police station.
The student, 28, said he had purchased a watch from the duty free shop of the Dubai International Airport. There was a big demand for the watch, he said. "I posted an ad online, putting it for sale for Dh38,000. A man called me, pretending to be an Emirati and expressing desire to buy the watch at the price I wanted."
The student then sent him a photo of the watch and received an ID copy from the man on WhatsApp.
"We met in the parking lot of a shopping centre. I got into his car and he claimed he could not find a parking spot and wanted to give the car for valet parking," the student told the prosecutor.
The student added that the defendant told him he wanted to get the watch checked at a shop in the mall before purchasing it. "However, he waited for me to get out of the car and drove off. Documents, including the purchase receipt, were still with me," the complainant said.
He was left "confused about what to do". He went back to his place in Abu Dhabi, where his accommodation supervisor advised him to call the police.
A police sergeant said: "The accused admitted he contacted the student to buy the watch. He also confessed he met the victim at the parking lot of a mall, where the latter got into his car and showed him the item."
The defendant has a criminal record of theft with the same criminal method.
A copy of the ID, sent by the defendant to the victim on WhatsApp, was enclosed to the case file.
mary@khaleejtimes.com


More news from