Airport porter deported over 2 mangoes

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Criminal Court on Monday ordered the deportation of an airport porter who stole two mangoes from a shipment and ate them.

The 27-year-old Asian defendant snatched the mangoes while on baggage handling duties at the Dubai Airport under a security services provider. Both mangoes worth Dhs6 belonged to a national airline passenger.

The Dubai Criminal Court’s jury sentenced him to three months behind bars and slapped him with a Dhs5, 000 fine. It ordered that both the prison term and the fine penalty be suspended but the defendant be deported.

During police and prosecution questioning, he acknowledged the incident and said that he worked at the airport tasked with carrying passengers’ belongings from the baggage storage to a conveyor belt and vice versa.

He explained that on Aug.11 the previous year, he was on duty in a national airline’s baggage storage at Terminal-3 when he opened one of the boxes containing fruits. “I was thirsty,” he contended.

He said he opened the box looking for water but found it contained mangoes. He picked out two, ate them on the spot and walked out of the baggage storage.

In April last year after the incident came to light, police called him and asked him whether he had opened a shipping box he was supposed to deliver to a plane destined for India. He confessed.

Policemen apprehended him and sought his permission to search his residence and confirm he did not steal from other shipments. Upon his consent, they combed it but found there was no stolen item.

In police records, a security guard working for the security services provider explained that he was manning surveillance cameras in the airline’s cargo area when he spotted the defendant red-handed opening bags.

“He was in the baggage storage opening one after the other looking for items to steal,” explained the security guard. Prosecutors handed the court a CD containing a clip supposedly showing the defendant in action.

The ruling remains subject to appeal at the Dubai Appeals Court within 14 days.