Dubai A driver has been jailed for six months for stealing Dh2,000 and two personal cards belonging to an elderly woman who forgot her purse in his taxi.
The victim, a 65-year-old Emirati woman, hailed the taxi from her residence in Al Rashidiya last September. Together with her maid, she boarded the taxi of the 26-year-old Pakistani, before asking him to stop outside an old villa, where her maid proceeded to purchase vine leaves before returning to the car.
On arriving back home, the elderly woman and her maid disembarked, only to realise, after the taxi driver drove off, that she had forgotten her purse on the back seat of the taxi.
She called the driver to inform him that she had left her purse in his car. The taxi driver, however, told her he could not find it.
The elderly woman told the taxi driver that she would report the matter to the police but her warning was not heeded.
She proceeded to inform the police, who summoned the Pakistani taxi driver to their station, where he initially feigned innocence.
A police corporal said the defendant eventually confessed during further interrogations, admitting that the woman had indeed left her purse on his back seat.
“He said he took from it money and repaid his employer Dh1,500 in debts ... he also said he buried the woman’s two personal cards [in] the sand in Al Mezher,” the corporal told prosecutors.
Police then called the elderly lady and informed her that her purse had been found.
Hauled before the courts, the defendant decided not to plead not guilty. However, the Dubai Court of First Instance found him guilty and sentenced him to six months in prison. He will be deported following the completion of his punishment.
