Debt collector loses mercy plea over heist

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A robber who thumped a petrol station’s employees with a wheel spanner must see out his three-year jail term, the Dubai Appeals Court has ruled.

The Arab debt collector, 26, abused a glass of alcohol before storming the station in Twar area brandishing the spanner at midnight on Oct.3. He smacked three Asian employees, Al Qusais Police Station records sowed. He smashed a drawer and stole Dhs980. In court, he contended that he was inebriated when he engaged with them in a dispute that culminated into a fight. “I assaulted them but I did not rob any money,” he argued.

The Dubai Criminal Court sentenced him to three years behind bars to be followed by deportation. He appealed the ruling seeking leniency. However, the Dubai Appeals Court has trashed his mercy plea.

In Prosecution records, a Filipino supervisor said he and his workmates were on duty at around 1:45am. They entered a room to have meals. Shortly, the defendant stormed the station brandishing the spanner.  He forced his way into the room. “He beat us with a metallic tool. I sustained a fracture. We fled out of the building. He smashed the accountant’s drawer, stole the money and sped off in a car,” complained the supervisor.

A Nepalese cashier said, “I heard a door being banged and thought there was a client. I walked out and asked him whether he needed any service. He thumped our heads with a metallic rod until we escaped to the yard.”

The third employee said, “He shouted at me and grabbed me by the shirt asking me to open a safe. He hit my head. He broke the drawer and snatched Dhs980 worth proceeds of the station’s shop. My head swelled.”  An Asian police corporal, 39, revealed that several workplaces had been raided that very night by an assailant using the same robbery method. Surveillance cameras showed his car. He had rented it from an Ajman office.

The office’s employee said the car was rented by the defendant and he had not returned it. He was nabbed by Sharjah Police after a similar robbery. “During police questioning he confessed to the raids,” said the corporal.

He explained how he abused alcohol at a friend’s house in Dubai before heading to the petrol station in question. “He told me he committed similar robberies the same night,” the corporal added.

An eyewitness said he heard an employee screaming that he was being hit. “The assailant was fleeing when I noted his car number and called the police,” he said. The defendant also confessed before prosecutors.