Arab man lured into buying luxury watches, robbed of Dhs108,000 in Dubai

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

An African and two others who are still at large stole Dhs108,000 from an Arab employee at knifepoint after offering to sell him valuable watches in a street in the Jumeirah area in Dubai.

The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the prime suspect to six months in jail to be followed by deportation and fined him the same stolen amount.

The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The case dated back to last February when an Arab employee filed a complaint that an African gang assaulted him and stole Dhs108,000 from him and the key of his luxury car. Using a fake ad on social media, the gang lured the victim to buy a number of watches of a well-known brand at a competitive price.

According to the official documents, the victim communicated with the advertiser and agreed with him on a place to take the watches and pay the price. The convict lured him to the Jumeirah area, where the gang members assaulted him and threatened him with swords, hammers and knives that were in their possession.

They then sprayed an eye irritating substance on his face and managed to steal Dhs108,000 from him before they fled away in their car.

A witness who lives in a villa in the same area of the incident stated in the investigations that he heard a noise outside the wall of the villa and found a number of African people assaulting a person before they fled away in a vehicle with a plate number that he registered.

A policeman said in the investigations that a team of detectives managed to identify the suspect after collecting evidence, adding that the suspect was arrested and admitted that he asked an African to take him to the Jumeirah area, where they assaulted the victim and then he was asked to take them to a neighboring emirate for Dhs4,000.