Investor, cohorts jailed for bid to rob driver

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

An investor, his relative and two other men who knifed a driver during a botched robbery will spend one year behind bars, the Dubai Criminal Court has ruled.

The Asian investor, 36, his relative, 22, the relative’s workmate, 27, and countryman, 26, attacked the Pakistani driver, 45, inside a dark sandy area in Al Muhaisna on Feb.26, he complained to Al Qusais Police Station. One of them faked a woman’s voice, contacted and convinced the driver ‘she’ wanted to rent his vehicle to move items. When he arrived, the workmate chilli-sprayed his eyes and the countryman stabbed him.

They used stainless steel carpet cutters in stabbing him. The Dubai Criminal Court jailed the quartet for one year to be followed by deportation. It also imprisoned the workmate for one month for overstaying his visa. On the record, the driver narrated that he was in Naif area at 11pm when a woman contacted seeking his services to move her items from Al Muhaisna to Al Hamriya. She told him to wait at the sandy area in Al Muhaisna.

He was waiting when the workmate showed up, entered his vehicle and told him to head to an adjacent sandy area and wait. Upon reaching there, the mask-clad countryman stormed demanding him to surrender cash. He refused. The countryman stabbed his left thigh. Here, the workmate told the countryman to cut the driver’s pockets open and take whatever they contained. This happened as the workmate sprayed the driver with chilli.

The workmate also stabbed his chest and left hand. The driver screamed for help and resisted prompting both men to run away. Records showed the investor’s relative was nearby watching the situation around the scene.

An Emirati lieutenant said the workmate upon arrest confessed to have sprayed chilli in the driver’s face. He denied stabbing the driver and insisted it was the countryman who stabbed him on various parts of his body. The relative on his part revealed the investor contacted and told him the driver had Dhs25, 000 they wanted to rob and share. The investor proposed they lure and mug him in a dark area not monitored by cameras.

The relative mobilised other members. The driver’s fierce resistance shattered the robbery scheme. They fled in a getaway car belonging to the countryman. They told the investor the driver resisted and foiled the mission.

Police traced and nabbed the investor in Naif area. He denied having masterminded the scheme. The countryman was netted at the airport trying to flee the country. He also denied.