Duo admit stealing 840 mobile phones

Dubai: Two suspects have confessed to breaking into a warehouse after cutting open its roof and stealing 840 cellphones, a court heard on Wednesday.

Criminal investigators discovered that the thieves put the warehouse's surveillance cameras out of action during the time of the robbery between midnight and 6am, according to records.

The Public Prosecution charged the Uzbek suspects, 30-year-old visitor K.J. and 31-year-old salesman S.Y., with using a sharp tool to cut two holes in the roof of the warehouse in Jebel Ali, breaking in and stealing 840 mobile phones worth Dh1.3 million.

They were charged with breaking and entering and theft along with a third suspect who is still at large.

"We stole the mobiles... but at 7am in the morning and not in the evening as we have been charged," said the duo who pleaded guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.

S.Y. told the judge that he aided and abetted in the crime but 'waited outside the warehouse'.

A first lieutenant told the Public Prosecution: "Initial interrogation revealed that the thieves broke in through holes which they opened in the ceiling.