Man kidnapped, robbed of Dh163,000 by fake massage centre in UAE

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Man kidnapped, robbed of Dh163,000 by fake massage centre in UAE

The victim was held captive for 14 hours and threatened to be burnt to death by the gang

by

Marie Nammour

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Published: Fri 24 Nov 2017, 6:25 AM

Last updated: Sat 25 Nov 2017, 7:45 AM

A Nigerian woman is standing trial after she and her friends had allegedly gone on a shopping spree worth more than Dh 163,790 with a stolen credit card.
The Court of First Instance heard the 35-year-old Nigerian woman beat, along with other runaway accomplices, an Egyptian man, and robbed him under death threats of his credit card, Dh 15,000 in cash, two mobile phones and a hand watch.
Public prosecution records show she had lured the complainant via a WhatsApp conversation to a massage date at a hotel room in Al Barsha on August 21.
She had had a plan with her partners to seduce victims to a room they had rented for that purpose.
They had opened an account on Facebook and lured the victim to a massage date. However, once in their flat they beat the victim up and robbed him of whatever cash and valuables he carried.
They removed his clothes, and threatened to smother him with a pillow and burn him with a heated ironing device they put near his face until they managed to make him reveal his bank card pin code.
She denied in court charges of forcible robbery, false imprisonment, blackmail and making criminal threats and unlawful use of another person's credit card.
The 34-year-old complainant, working as a technology engineer, said he got a mobile number from the internet about a woman offering massage. "I got in touch with her later on WhatsApp. I went to the hotel room and after reaching there I found it was just a flat and not a massage centre." 
"The door was open and a woman received me. She was then joined by four men. They removed my clothes, tied me up and beat me up," the complainant said. 
The complainant added he was assaulted for more than 3 hours during which the accused threatened to burn him to death with a heated iron. They eventually forced him into revealing his bank card pin code.
"One of them took my ID and went to the bank where he withdrew Dh 15,000. The sale male accomplice then went to Sharjah and made purchases of gold worth Dh 163,790 with the card," the engineer told the prosecutor. 
"I remained their captive for 14 hours until 4 pm the following day, when I was told to take a shower and get dressed because they would release me. However, I got out of shower and found they had fled the place."
 A police lieutenant said the woman denied having anything to do with the robbery and claimed she had been in the country as a visitor since five days only. "After checking her mobile phone, we found she had been sending her location to men on WhatsApp. But she denied though having robbed any man or doing anything illegal".
The police officer added: "The complainant could identify the woman among other suspects at the police station and confirmed she was with the other men when they assaulted and robbed him of his credit card and valuables".  
- mary@khaleejtimes.com
 


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