Dubai: A policeman has been accused of accepting Dh600 in phone credit as bribe from a worker to apprehend three illegal residents, who wished to be deported.

The 27-year-old policeman was said to have taken three payments in the form of phone credit from the 27-year-old Bangladeshi worker, to have the latter’s friends arrested and deported in January.

Following an informant’s tip off that the 27-year-old policeman had been accepting kickbacks to apprehend illegal residents wishing to be deported, according to a police lieutenant’s statement, police cooperated with the Bangladeshi worker to apprehend the suspected policeman in a sting operation.

Records said the policeman was stationed at the Dubai Global Village and aiding the authorities in apprehending individuals involved in flouting UAE residency laws, arresting them and forwarding them for trial.

The Bangladeshi cooperated with Dubai Police, according to records, and was bugged with wires so that conversations [between him and the policeman] could be recorded to be used as future evidence against the policeman.

Records said the policeman and the worker were arrested during the sting operation, during which it was documented that the policeman had accepted 3 payments of Dh200 in the form of phone credits to have three illegal workers apprehended and deported.

The three illegal residents are the worker’s friends, said records.

Prosecutors charged the policeman of abusing his job and accepting bribes. Meanwhile, the worker was charged with offering bribes to the policeman to have his friends [who had been staying illegally in Dubai] caught and deported.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the 27-year-old policeman was commissioned to apprehend illegal residents and hand them over to the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai. The suspect requested Dh200 in bribe per person [absconders, illegal workers and over-stayers] from the Bangladeshi and apprehended those individuals and had them deported.

The two suspects pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.

A police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that an informant alerted them that the 27-year-old had been taking bribes from the other suspect.

“We apprehended the Bangladeshi first. He admitted that he had been paying kickbacks [phone credits] to the other suspect to have his [Bangladeshi worker] friends deported. We convinced the latter to cooperate with Dubai Police and have the suspected policeman apprehended in a sting operation. The Bangladeshi suspect had paid the phone credit in the form of an SMS to the other suspect. They were both referred to the public prosecution,” the lieutenant told the prosecutors.