Fingerprint technology helps catch veteran thief

Abu Dhabi: Police used fingerprint technology to catch a man who had committed eight thefts and stolen goods worth Dh1.3 million, said senior officials.

Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Rahman Al Hamadi, head of the Department of Criminal Evidence at Abu Dhabi Police, said after a few thefts from shops and houses the suspect, a Jordanian, remained at large until the fingerprint section helped solve the mystery.

In the last theft the suspect robbed a Pakistani's house and took goods including a mobile phone, said Captain Sultan Al Tunaiji, head of the fingerprint section, who dealt with the case.

The suspect sold the mobile phone to a shop in the city, he said. As per the instructions of the police, since 2007, mobile phone shops only buy second-hand phones after the seller fills in forms provided by the police and gives copies of his identity card.

As the investigation progressed, the Pakistani gave his details at the shop, following which CID checked the suspect's documents and issued an arrest warrant. Meanwhile the suspect had already gone to his home country.

"Once we identified the suspect, the police stations and entry points were alerted. Finally, he was arrested as he was trying to enter the country via Abu Dhabi International airport," Al Tunaiji said.

When he was taken to jail, as a routine procedure his fingerprints were taken and entered into the recently-established unified criminal records database.

"The suspect's fingerprints matched with samples collected from eight different cases and he was instantly linked to all the other cases," he said.