Trio jailed in Dubai over Dh12m diamond heist

Dubai: Three visitors who lured a jeweller to Paris and confined him at a hotel before forcing his employee to hand them Dh12 million worth of jewellery have been jailed for three years each.

The Romanian trio, M.K., V.C. and V.A., convinced the Lebanese jeweller to meet them in Paris to strike a deal to sell them diamonds in December 2014.

They met the businessman and his son at a hotel, where they forced him to call his employee in Dubai and make him hand over the diamonds and gold to one of their accomplices, who remains at large.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the trio of threatening to harm the Lebanese jeweller and his son if he did not call his Syrian employee and coerce him to give them the jewellery.

“The defendants will be deported following the completion of their three-year imprisonment,” said presiding judge Urfan Omar in courtroom three on Wednesday.

The Romanian defendants had denied threatening the jeweller or coercing him to force his employee to hand over the gold.

Defence lawyers contended in court that the defendants had nothing to do with the purported robbery and the meeting in Paris was to sign a business deal.

Records said M.K. and V.C. threatened the employee into giving them 55 diamond necklaces, 25 bracelets, 71 pairs of earrings and 120 rings. V.A. aided and abetted them.

The Lebanese victim testified in court that the incident happened after his employee called him while he was in Beirut.

“My employee called me and claimed that a man [who turned out to be V.C.] walked into my shop in Deira and presented him the shop’s business card. The man had claimed that he wanted to buy a big quantity of jewellery as he was in the process of opening a jewellery store in Abu Dhabi. The man asked for discounts up to 45 per cent,” he said.

“A few days later an Egyptian man called and claimed that he lived in Paris and that he had asked V.C. to check my shop in Dubai. The caller, who said his name was A.A., asked me to travel to Paris to seal the deal and collect the money there.

“The deal was worth around Dh6.2 million. I travelled with my son to Paris. We met A.A … then we were lured to a hotel room where they threatened to harm me and my son … I was forced to call my employee and ordered him to give the gold that weighed more than 6.5kg,” he added.

The Lebanese and his son were allowed to go, and the latter contacted his Syrian employee and asked him to lodge a police complaint, records said.

A police lieutenant testified that they identified the defendants using footage from CCTV cameras installed in the shop.

“The defendants were arrested one by one. The diamonds and gold were recovered at the defendants’ residences where they were hidden behind a sink and a washing machine,” he said.

Dubai Police are working with Interpol to repatriate a female suspect involved in the case.

Wednesday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.