Dubai: Four men, who broke into a company and stole 286 laptops worth Dh457,000 and sold each device for Dh1,000, lost their appeals on Wednesday and will be jailed for one year each.
The four, a 27-year-old Pakistani, J.K., and three Afghans, J.Z., M.K. and S.B., broke the locks of the company in Al Rifa’a, stole the laptops and transported them in a pickup truck in May 2014.
The Dubai Appeal Court rejected the convicts’ appeals and upheld the one-year imprisonment against each.
Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm also upheld the primary court’s decision to deport them.
In April, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the quartet of breaking in and theft.
M.A., a Pakistani suspect, was acquitted of possessing the stolen laptops.
Meanwhile a Pakistani worker, A.A., was fined Dh3,000 for possessing part of the stolen laptops.
J.K., J.Z., M.K. and S.B. had pleaded not guilty and denied committing the heist.
A police corporal testified in court that the company owner reported that a number of thieves broke into his workplace and stole the laptops.
“The owner said his staff discovered the destroyed locks and that a large quantity of laptops had been stolen from the company’s premises in Al Rifa’a. Primary interrogations revealed the defendants had been arrested for their involvement in a similar case in Deira. We suspected that they had robbed the electronics company as the two heists were carried out using the same modus operandi. We questioned two of the suspects, who confessed that they stole the laptops. During questioning, the defendants said a runaway defendant, whom they identified as F., asked them to gather in front of the company … then they broke the locks and stole the laptops that they transported in the pickup. M.A. and A.A. helped the defendants sell the laptops for Dh1,000 per piece,” he claimed.
The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court within 30 days.
