Seven jailed for Dhs300,000 highway heist

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

Seven men implicated in knocking a deliveryman’s speeding vehicle, spraying him with a mixture of chilli and salt and snatching Dhs293, 539 will spend three years in jail.  

The Asian mastermind, a driver and his workmate, a businessman and his associate, a labourer and an unemployed man (aged 24-47) committed the crime with the help of a convicted motorist, 30.

The motorist rammed a getaway car into a courier company vehicle at a junction in Jebel Ali on Jul.22.2018. They mugged the deliveryman. The Criminal Court jailed them for three years plus deportation.

The motorist explained before police and prosecutors, “The mastermind summoned us for a meeting inside a flat in Abu Dhabi. He proposed the robbery and tasked me with driving the getaway car.

“I was driving at around 70km/h when the driver’s workmate advised me to knock the company vehicle. I did so, stepped out, apologised to the deliveryman and engaged him in a discussion to distract him. The workmate, labourer and unemployed man opened its door. The deliveryman tried to stop them. They sprayed him with chilli and snatched the cash. We fled to Abu Dhabi. The getaway car belonged to the driver.”

The mastermind said he earlier worked at the company. When he faced financial constraints he thought of ambushing its vehicles. The driver provided a getaway car and his workmate mobilised gang members. They spent around 20 days in the Abu Dhabi flat devising plans. On the date of the incident they chased the Pickup in question using three cars. Other defendants also confessed and gave similar narrations.

In Jebel Ali Police Station records, the Nepalese deliveryman, 44, said he had been commissioned by his boss to deliver the cash from the company’s shopping store in Abu Dhabi to headquarters in Jebel Ali. The gang tailed him from Abu Dhabi. He tried to stop them from snatching the cash. They punched him and sprayed his eyes with the irritating solution. “I was driving when a car hit my vehicle from the left side.

“I held the wheel firmly, controlled the vehicle and pulled over. I was talking to the liable motorist when another car arrived. Its occupants beat me up, sprayed me with chilli and sped off with the bag of money.”

Court records showed the motorist was sentenced to a similar punishment. He appealed and lost the clemency plea.  He was also handed a two month-prison term by the Misdemenours Court for damaging the company car.