Dubai: A jobless man has been accused of committing multiple thefts by using a sparkplug to smash cars windows before making off with cash, valuables and electronics among other items he could lay his hands on.
A Gulf News photographer, one of the victims, found his car window smashed and a camera and lens worth Dh34,000 stolen upon returning to his car parked near Dubai Tennis Stadium in February 2015.
Shortly after having reported the theft to the police, another person reported that a thief had broken his car’s left side window and stolen a sports bag containing cash and valuables in Al Garhoud area in March 2015.
According to records, having received several complaints of thefts carried out using the same modus operandi, the police found a sparkplug beside a car targeted by a thief in similar fashion in Bur Dubai.
Upon examination at Dubai Police’s forensic laboratory, forensic experts matched the fingerprints on the sparkplug with a 43-year-old Afghan man who had just been apprehended for theft.
Prosecutors charged the Afghan suspect of using a sparkplug to break car windows and steal a camera and lens worth Dh34,000 from the photographer’s car and a sport bag that contained Dh2,000, a mobile, battery charger, flash memory and an earphone from the car of another complainant.
Prosecutors accused the suspect of committing two thefts using similar tools at night.
The suspect pleaded not guilty and strongly denied the accusation levelled against him when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the court will appoint a lawyer to defend the suspect when it reconvenes on June 24.
A police lieutenant told prosecutors that the suspect was apprehended following his involvement in a theft in Bur Dubai.
“We seized the sparkplug that was found beside the car robbed in Bur Dubai. Forensic examiners identified the suspect after his fingerprints matched with those that were lifted from the two thefts in Garhoud. After identifying his whereabouts, police stopped the suspect in Al Muraqabat on a bicycle that he had been using during his thefts. He was carrying a bag that contained sparkplugs and gloves in addition to other items that he seemed to have stolen such as cheques, cash, mobiles and valuables. Upon confronting him, the suspect accompanied us to his flat in Al Rifaa … we searched his bed and discovered three handbags in which he hid everything he had stolen. During questioning, he alleged that he purchased the stolen items from a Pakistani stranger,” the lieutenant testified.
