Dubai: Two salesman have been jailed for three months each for attempting to steal an iPad, a wireless earphone and a security jacket from the hypermarket where they worked.
The Filipino salesman, 34-year-old N.L. and 35-year-old M.A., hid the stolen items worth Dh13,381 and attempted to smuggle them out of their workplace in February.
Records said the hypermarket’s security guards foiled the defendants’ theft attempt after spotting them on CCTV cameras.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted N.L. and M.A. of attempted robbery after they pleaded guilty.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the duo will be deported after serving their punishments.
“We are guilty, but we want to pay for the items that we took and settle this dispute,” claimed N.L.
According to the charge sheet, the Filipinos abused their job and stole from their workplace.
One of the hypermarket’s managers said the incident happened at one of their branches at Mall of the Emirates.
“M.A. was spotted on surveillance cameras pushing a trolley in a suspicious manner at 2pm. The 35-year-old was spotted carrying an iPad in his hand and suddenly he vanished from the CCTV screens. Some time later he appeared again but he had changed his clothes. The security guards immediately stopped him and accompanied him to a search room. When asked about the iPad, he immediately admitted that he had stolen it in collaboration with N.L. He confessed that he went into the warehouse and handed the iPad to N.L., who disappeared inside the warehouse and removed the bar code from the iPad. Then N.L. came out of the warehouse and handed the iPad again to M.A., according to the latter’s confession. The 35-year-old said he put the iPad in his backpack and walked out … then the security summoned the 34-year-old from the warehouse. They defendants guided the police to the place where they had hidden the stolen items,” claimed the manager.
Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
