Man sentenced to three years in jail for staging his own kidnapping

Dubai: A company accountant will spend three years in jail for plotting his own and a colleague's kidnap and robbing Dh1.37 million which they withdrew from a bank.

The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the 35-year-old Indian accountant, M.A., along with his four associates who staged the kidnap, to three years in jail each.

The incident took place after M.A.'s manager assigned him to withdraw cash from the bank

M.A.'s colleague, M.M., was with him in the car when the incident took place.

The Public Prosecution charged three of the associates, 46-year-old driver E.N., 28-year-old foodstuff vendor M.K., and 32-year-old machine operator S.P., with posing as CID personnel, kidnapping and illegally detaining M.A. and M.M.

They were charged with driving off to a remote area where they assaulted M.A. and M.M. and stole Dh1.37 million. They also snatched M.M.'s mobile phone when he tried to alert his manager.

The accountant and 30-year-old light vehicle driver O.F. were charged with aiding and abetting the rest of the suspects by plotting the incident.

The accountant was charged with falsely alarming the police about the kidnap and robbery.

M.M. testified: "The other suspects posed as policemen and forced us to ride their car. They drove us outside Dubai and assaulted M.A. and me before they pointed a pistol at our faces.

"They took the money and my cell phone. Then they asked me to keep my head down until they dropped me in a deserted place. I hitchhiked to Al Aweer and reported the kidnap and heist to our manager.