Dubai: A Filipino porter has been charged with repositioning a surveillance camera at the American Hospital to smuggle out a charity box and steal Dh3,765 from it.
The 33-year-old porter, M.L., failed to appear at the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday where he was scheduled to be tried for theft.
Prosecutors charged the suspect, who worked as a porter at the American Hospital's X-ray section, with stealing Dh3,765 from the charity box belonging to the Dar Al Birr charitable organisation.
One of the hospital's employees, an Emirati, testified: "A guardsman informed me that the charity funds' collector complained that a charity box was missing… the surveillance camera footage showed the Filipino stealing the box which was kept at the reception."
Records said police arrested M.L. shortly after the incident.
The suspect allegedly confessed to the prosecutor, who questioned him, that he repositioned the surveillance camera away from the charity box. The defendant also admitted that he placed the box in a clothes carriage and smuggled it out of the hospital.
‘Pocketed the money'
"I opened the box with a knife and pocketed the money…," M.L. told prosecutors.
According to prosecution records, the surveillance camera footage also showed the porter walking towards the camera and repositioning it. He was also shown pushing the carriage outside the hospital.
Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir will issue a verdict in absentia later this month.
