Cleaners in Dubai cleared of theft charge after dumping Dh10,000 handbag in trash bin

Dubai: Dubai Court of First Instance has cleared two workers of charges of stealing a luxury handbag worth nearly Dh10,000 from a woman. The cleaners had claimed they thought it was a garbage bag and so they dumped it in a trash bin after cleaning the apartment.

According to records, the two defendants aged 32 and 27 admitted to seeing a bag in the kitchen containing leftovers of bread, tissues and cans, beside other garbage. They dumped the bag after cleaning the apartment in Dubai’s Al Barsha area.

However, Dubai Public Prosecution charged the defendants with stealing a luxury designer handbag worth nearly Dh10,000.

The victim testified that last October, the two defendants arrived at her apartment to clean it. After the cleaners left, the woman claimed that her handbag was missing. “It was kept at the corner between the living room and the bathroom. When I asked the cleaning agency’s supervisor about the bag, he said the cleaners had thrown it in the trash bin,” the woman said on record.

A 29-year-old policeman, who was dispatched to the location after the woman reported the incident, said the security guards told him that the cleaners had thrown the expensive handbag in a trash bin, thinking it was just a piece of garbage.

“They claimed that they had dumped the bag in the building’s waste bin,” the policeman said on record.

Court has cleared the cleaners of charges of theft, but prosecution has appealed against the verdict.