Guardsman deny stealing 240 boxes of Pepsi

Dubai: A guard for a refreshment company has denied stealing 240 boxes of soft drinks when he appeared in court on Wednesday.

"I was doing my job. I didn't steal anything. Besides, those refreshments were already wrecked and unusable after they fell off the truck which was transporting them& It is the duty of every guard to check incoming and outgoing trucks and we have to sign on every consignment that goes in or out of the premises. I am not guilty," the 23-year-old Kenyan defendant said as he pleaded innocent before the Dubai Court of First Instance.

The Public Prosecution charged the defendant, J.A., with stealing 240 boxes of soft drinks from the refreshment company.

The company's Jordan-ian warehouse supervisor testified that the suspect phoned him one evening and informed him that the consignment fell off the truck and was wrecked. "When I checked on the consignment the next day, I realised that it was not the same one. The truck was carrying small cans and the wrecked consignment turned out to be one which had been stored in the warehouse for a long period," said the supervisor.