Dubai: The Dubai Court of Appeals has confirmed that a perfume beauty advisor will spend three months in jail for stealing from Dubai Duty Free [DDF] Dh22,800 that he claimed he needed for his sick father’s operation.
The 32-year-old Moroccan, who worked at DDF’s perfumes section, hid in the washroom while pretending to be using the loo before he took the cash and concealed it in his personal bag in April.
He then gave the proceeds of selling perfumes that day to his co-worker and asked him to give the proceeds to the collection department since he was in a hurry.
The perfume advisor then booked a trip to his homeland at 7pm before the authorities arrested him at Abu Dhabi airport the same evening shortly before he boarded the plane.
In May, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed the defendant for three months and fined him Dh22,800 for stealing from his workplace.
The Moroccan appealed his primary judgement before the Appeal Court and sought to have a reduced punishment.
Guilty plea
The appellant pleaded guilty and asked for a lenient punishment.
On Wednesday, presiding judge Saeed Salen Bin Sarm dismissed the defendant’s appeal and confirmed his imprisonment.
The Dh22,800 fine was also upheld.
The accused will be deported after serving the jail term.
When he defended himself before the appellate court, the defendant argued that he was forced to take the money that he needed for his father’s urgent operation in Morocco.
“I was at fault. I had been working at DDF for five years and I was the best employee several times. I had never committed a mistake. I did what I had done because my sick father needed to undergo an operation and I needed money,” he contended.
The accused stole the money and entered the washroom where he hid the money inside his personal bag.
The Moroccan said he asked his colleague to hand over the proceeds to the collection department and pretended that he was in a hurry to leave.
He booked a ticket to his country and went to Abu Dhabi where he was arrested at the airport before boarding the flight.
An Egyptian security officer at the Duty Free said they alerted the police about the stolen money shortly after they discovered the deficit between the sales records and proceeds of the day.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
