Dubai: A jobless man has been jailed for six months for using a screwdriver to break into a restaurant and stealing Dh9,500 from the cash register at 2am.
It was closing hours when the 25-year-old Bangladeshi defendant broke open the back-door of the restaurant in Al Bidaa, opened the cash register with a screwdriver and absconded after stealing cash in September 2016.
One of the restaurant’s Indian bakers was the first to discover the burglary when he arrived at his workplace at 4am to open the shop.
On-site police interrogations revealed the Bangladeshi’s involvement after which he was arrested.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of breaking into the restaurant and stealing money at night although he had pleaded not guilty.
According to the primary judgement, the accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
Records said the defendant and another suspect, who remains at large, broke down the door at the back of the restaurant.
The baker testified that when he went to the restaurant at 4am to open the place, he saw the back-door open. “The lock was wrecked and the door was open … I walked in and discovered that the register had been broken and thrown on the floor. I also saw a screwdriver, which the assailant was believed to have used to break the register, on the desk,” the baker said.
A police lieutenant told the investigating prosecutor that primary interrogations led to the arrest of the 25-year-old Bangladeshi.
“A police team inspected the theft scene and the restaurant had been turned upside down … there were papers and documents on the floor and the back-door and the register were wrecked. Following the defendant’s arrest, he admitted that he and the runaway suspect had carried out a series of thefts in the vicinity. He claimed that they broke into the restaurant and stole Dh9,500 which they split between them,” said the lieutenant.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 10 days.
