Mobile phone ring exposes salesman’s covert plan to film female coworkers

Dubai: A salesman who hid a mobile phone set to record video in a box of detergent to covertly film his female coworkers while they were using the toilet was busted when it rang.

A Filipina cashier claimed she heard the mobile phone ringing and found it inside a powder box with the video mode on.

Prosecutors accused the 25-year-old Indian salesman, M.M., of breaching the modesty and privacy of his three female coworkers and molesting them by taking secret pictures of them in the washroom.

The suspect did not enter a plea because jail guards did not bring him from his detention to appear before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

Presiding Judge Wajdi Al Menyawi adjourned the case until the suspect is brought from his detention on May 6.

According to prosecution records, the suspect made a hole in the laundry powder box, set his mobile phone on the video mode and fixed it inside the box. Then he positioned the box under the sink facing the toilet seat so he could secretly film his co-workers.

The defendant and the three Filipina coworkers worked at a supermarket in Al Qusais.

The 30-year-old Filipina testified that she was using the toilet when she heard a mobile ringing on March 7.

“I searched for the phone and discovered that it was hidden inside a Tide box. I handed over the mobile phone to my boss and informed him what happened. The management called me and my two co-workers and they showed us that we were filmed while using the toilet. The recording exposed our private parts. The suspect was also shown in the footage while he was positioning the mobile phone,” claimed the cashier.

Meanwhile a Filipina saleswoman testified that her co-worker [cashier] informed her that she found the mobile phone fixed inside the box under the sink.

“There were footages of me sitting undressed on the toilet seat as well,” claimed the saleswoman.

An Indian manager testified that there were two video recordings [45 minutes each] when they checked the mobile.

“When the defendant was exposed as his face showed in the recordings, he apologised to the women,” claimed the manager.

The suspect was cited admitting before prosecutors that he filmed his coworkers secretly between March 4 and 8.