Dubai: A driver, who filmed two honeymooners having sex in his limousine’s tinted cabin while driving them around the city, won his appeal on Wednesday and had his two-year imprisonment halved.

The Indian newly-weds were spending a four-day honeymoon in Dubai when the 28-year-old Pakistani limousine driver secretly filmed them while they had sex in his vehicle in February.

After he dropped them off, M.S. sent the Indian husband a small clip of him in an intimate position with his wife in the limousine on WhatsApp and asked him to pay Dh2,000.

He threatened to upload the clip on social media if the man didn’t pay.

In July, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed M.S. for two years for molesting the couple and breaching their privacy, blackmailing them and abusing the telecommunication system. He pleaded guilty.

The defendant appealed the primary ruling before the Appeal Court where he sought to have his punishment reduced.

Citing grounds of leniency, presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm slashed M.S.’ two-year jail term to one year on Wednesday.

The accused will be deported after serving his jail term.

The defendant molested the Indian couple by secretly filming them and dishonoured the newly-weds when he forwarded the clip to the husband, said records.

He misused the telecommunication system and breached the couple’s privacy when he filmed them without their knowledge.

The husband’s countryman friend said the incident happened when the newly-weds visited Dubai for four days.

“My friend informed me that after the driver dropped them off at Dubai Mall, the latter messaged him and demanded Dh2,000. He threatened to upload on the internet a video of the couple having sex. The husband also told me that M.S. sent him on WhatsApp a short clip of what had happened in the car. I met my friend in the hotel where he stayed and then we reported the matter to the police,” he testified.

A police sergeant said the accused was lured to the hotel to collect his money where he was caught.

M.S. admitted to prosecutors that he filmed the couple at an intersection in Zabeel area.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.