Medical storekeeper charged with stealing PPE kits in Dubai

Dubai: A Dubai medical storekeeper has been accused of stealing 550 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) worth nearly Dh21,000 from a medical warehouse of a government entity.

A Dubai Court of First Instance heard on Wednesday that the 28-year-old Indian defendant stole five boxes of PPE kits and tried to sell it to a medical supply company in June this year.

According to official records, the defendant contacted an owner of the medical supply company offering to sell the boxes. However, she informed the government department, who asked her to help Dubai Police in setting a trap for the defendant.

An official at the government department said that the defendant has been working as a storekeeper since 2017 and he had the key to the store. “His duty was to receive the medical supplies and store it. I don’t know how he stole the medical supplies but I’m shocked,” the official said in records.

Trap

The owner of the medical supplies said store that she was contacted by the defendant to discuss the prices of PPE kits and then told her that he has boxes of medical supplies for sale but she shouldn’t inform anyone. “I alerted the government department who asked me to contact Dubai Police. They set a trap for the defendant when I went to take the medical supplies and handed him over the money at a villa in Mirdif,” the company owner said in records.

Dubai Public Prosecution charged the defendant with embezzling 550 PPE kits worth Dh20,900. The next hearing was scheduled for November 25.