Dubai A chef who stole Dh2,300 from his co-worker after suffering losses in his online trading business, was handed a suspended imprisonment after he returned the stolen cash.
The cash was stolen from the co-worker bag that he had put in a locker at the restaurant where he worked, in January this year.
Footage from the restaurant’s surveillance cameras showed that the 27-year-old German chef was the last person present in the locker room.
When the restaurant management asked the chef about the theft, he instantly admitted to stealing the money.
On Sunday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the suspect of stealing his colleague’s money after he entered a guilty plea.
Citing grounds of leniency, presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi handed a three-month suspended imprisonment to the suspect.
“I stole the money and I am sorry for what I have done. I returned the money to the victim,” the defendant argued in court.
According to Sunday’s ruling, the German will be deported.
The suspect admitted to prosecutors that he stole the money from his co-worker’s bag because he was financially broken after his online trading business went bust.
“I was changing in the locker room when I saw my co-worker’s bag. I opened his wallet and took out the money. I did not count the cash until I reached home. The management told me that I had been caught on CCTV cameras while I took the money. I felt guilty and confessed to the crime. I returned the money to my colleague and even gave some extra sum to him. I was ashamed of what I had done,” he said.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal.
